From Architect to Technical Writer

A technical writer bridges the communication gap between experts and non-experts. We take complicated technical information and translate it so that non-experts can understand it. This is very similar to what I have been doing for more than 20 years as an architect, where we use drawings, text, and spreadsheets to explain something to somebody else.

Anybody who has ever worked with me knows how much I love to create spreadsheets, schedules, and charts. I used these documents to explain specific elements of our building design, and I created them based on who would be using them – clients, users, consultants, team members, managers, marketing, or executive boards.

I think of this skill as re-packaging complex issues into documents that readers can understand. In each of our industries, we have jargon or lingo that we use to communicate with each other. That’s fine, if you’re talking to someone else in your field. How well can you explain the same information to someone outside your field?

In architecture school, I learned how to juxtapose the vernacular to create a dichotomy and tension within the negative space which would ultimately become de rigueur for anyone hapless enough to pursue this profession as master builder. This was the complexity and contradiction of architecture to which I espoused.

On the job, I learned, herewith, that all such rules are to be followed in accordance with Vernon’s statutes and under no such circumstances are said rules to be violated which would cause liquidated damages to be incurred, unless the architect is indemnified, heirs and successors held harmless, and the contractor generally followed the design intent as depicted by the architect.

I also learned, OTJ, that BIM is SOP for designing HVAC systems because it facilitates CAD production of the CDs for MOBs and documenting the LEED elements as required by the USGBC.


Extreme examples? Maybe, unless you’re an architecture critic, a lawyer, or a project architect.

A technical writer would take those convoluted words and phrases, determine what the person is trying to say, find out who the intended audience is, and re-write them so that the message is clear.

That’s what I intend to do in my new business:
Mullen it Over.

Find out more at Mullen it Over