Why is technical writing important in my chosen career as a seaman?

Technical writing is simplifing complex task, suitation or tool in simple , consise, easy to understand form. Technical writing is an art to delivering technical information to technical or non-technical users in a simple and easy to understandable form. Technical Writing is done for a purpose. As I understand from your question you are a seaman and I will not be suprised if you will make a great carrer in Technical Writing been a seaman. As of now Technical writing has been restricted to Technology or basically software industry. So you will have a great career option by using your Technical Writing skills in feild of sailing. As far as I can think of ( off course my knowledge is very limited to sailing), you can do the following to start of in your present job through documentation: 1. Define and order standard processes to be followed. 2. Ensure critical processes are standardized. 3. Make a note on qualify acceptance and rejection metrics. 4. Detail operational necessities required during specific and excess environments. 5. Highlight, describe risk and solution need to be followed during extreme environmental situations. 6. Assembling complex parts or spares. 7. Coordinating different functionalities or departments. You need to make sure what ever documents or hand outs you design and develop it has to be very simple to understand (Technical and non technical persons ) and does not take much of time to figure out the possible answers. All the very best. Sriharsha Nadiger