Being a writer for hire requires that you understand the nonverbal language of your clients. Often they will not know what they really want until it's already on paper.
"Writing and translation" is very nearly a pleonasm (an unnecessary redundancy), at least in the case of business and technical writers. Granted, having the specific skills to translate a document from English to Spanish is incredibly useful, but even writers like myself, with only one language mastered, find ourselves translating whenever we are with a client. This translation is between the language of your client and that of his audience.
Let me give you a couple of examples:
- Lt. Col. Richard A. Ward, my father, retired from active duty in the Air Force and became a technical writer for a major defense contractor. Specializing in flight manuals for Navy planes, he explained to me that his job was "translating engineer into pilot."
- I worked for a real estate law firm for several years. One day while speaking with a senior associate, I found out that she had been unable to explain to the IT department what information she needed in a new report for several months. In a later conversation I brought up her needs to the head computer technician, and he said to me, "Is that what she wants?" The next two years I worked there I specialized in translating attorney into computerese.
Active Listening Skills
Rephrasing what your client asks you for is vital to successful business writing. You can't translate what you client wants if you don't listen in the first place. Avoid the vigorous nods to convince him you understand, and instead restate his concerns in your own words.
Business writers are translators as a matter of course. Go into every project with the understanding that even your client may not completely understand the scope and focus of the job and you will be able to better serve his needs.
