I had the chance to return to my technical writer duties this week, which is something I haven’t done since the beginning of my internship. I truly miss how much I enjoyed doing it. Technical writing truly strikes a cord with me as I love examining close details and explaining what makes things tick to others. This time around, I needed to explain how the devices known as Swivel Robots worked.

At first, I didn’t understand what I was truly looking at. The robot was consider ‘not working,’ but I didn’t have a point of reference for what it should look like if it was. In order to figure out the full capabilities, I had to experiment and consult online documentation. Through trial and error and a sizable amount of reading, I was able to eventually figure out what the robot was supposed to do and what was wrong with it. Turns out that the markers had been out of sync and both them and the base were dead. Once they were fully charged, I resynced and recharged the batteries, tested the audio recording, and finally wrote up the full instructions for others to follow. Here is a mock-up of what I wrote.

Created for use in classroom lectures and office meetings, Swivel robots are able to track and record presentations using your mobile device. They consist of 2 main components, the base and the little remotes known as markers. The base is where you will attach your phone and position the robot to record the presenter. The markers are remotes that can angle the base or record audio with its builtin microphone. You can place markers around the room or link them with a lanyard to a presenter to pick up audio outside of your device’s range. Once you download the app on your device and make an account, you will have the aforementioned abilities at your disposal!

I came back to remembering what it is I enjoyed about technical writing. If I get to take something apart and explain why it is the way it is, I will enjoy it. I could see this becoming a career path for me in the feature.