Advice for Aspiring Technical Writers & Communicators

A colleague of mine from LinkedIn recently expressed interest in getting a start in the technical writing industry. She wrote:

"I am a trainer at work for the software we use and write my own training guides, have documented our work programs along with volunteer work documenting How to Guides for websites. I want to learn more about technical writing to determine if it's a direction I want to go. Where would you recommend I start? Is earning a technical writing certification a requirement? What pitfalls should I avoid? What advice would you give a newbie? Thanks! - Andrea

My (Long) Answer

Whether one seeks to ply the writing trade by doling out multi-volume maintenance manuals for military aircraft, or by authoring a warning message later appearing on a label wrapped around a TV power cord - it's a technical writer who crafts these words.

While it's admirable that you wish to investigate technical writing as a new career, it's a good idea to know what you're getting into. If you are seriously considering technical writing as a career, my hope here is not to cover every conceivable factor. Rather I wish to give you a few things to mull before venturing onto the broad floor space that technical writing covers.

A Career in Technical Writing / Technical Communication

Fortunately, a career as a technical writer (sometimes also called "technical communicator") may offer great opportunities in literally any industry.

Need proof? In my 10+ year career as a technical writer, I have worked for the following kinds of companies:

* Startup software training outfit
* Online / traditional brick-and-mortar school
* Computer hardware manufacturer
* Shipping and logistics
* Healthcare provider
* Genetics and tissue sampling firm
* Software firms
* Medical device manufacturer
* Industrial centrifuge manufacturer
* Fuels and Lubricants

My work history above proves that businesses of all kinds need tech writers. Please note from the above that these include "hard" industries (like manufacturing) as well as "soft" industries (like IT). During my career as a tech writer, my actual job titles ranged anywhere from "Technical Writer" to "Corporate Communications Officer".

Whatever the industry, the need for good tech writing abounds.

Now getting someone to hire you is the core of our discussion here...

Still Debated: The Standards That Make a Good Technical Writer

Unfortunately, the tech writing profession comes as a double-edged sword. While companies need tech writers, the qualifications a good tech writer should have traditionally have not been very well defined. As a result, the value of your job (and your performance) as a technical writer may frequently be under question.

Why? For several reasons. The first of which has to do with...

The History Of Technical Writing

Before the days of mass production, people learned to do things in a very personable and one-on-one manner: typically through apprenticeships in the classic trades. In this scenario, user manuals and other documentation as we know them today were few to none. During those ancient times the medium of communication was through the old way: the so-called "oral traditions" or storytelling.

A well-known writing authority, ProEdit, states:

"Technical writing has been around since the first technical writer, Cro-Magnon man, was drawing on cave walls."

Putting our ancestral technical writers aside, when we compare it to other well-established trades, technical writing as we know it is a relative newcomer: ProEdit further states:

"...most experts would agree that the golden age of technical writing started with the invention of the computer."

Technical Writing Is A Young Trade

Since the relatively recent arrival of technology (within the last 100 years or less), few to no standards have been universally accepted as a means of identifying good tech writer skills.

To exacerbate this already tenuous situation, we must factor in a stigma from the past...

OMG! The First Tech Writers Were... Engineers!

(Note: Some statements below are made entirely with tongue-in-cheek - but hopefully they make the point.)

With an accepted proliferation of consumer products, the need for good documentation has finally been recognized. But this is not to say the people hired to do the job of technical writing were good writers.

To make matters worse, the first tech writers were (heaven forbid!) engineers.

As some of us know, engineers are geeks - life forms that originate from other planets. They have a hard time communicating, and may have minimal social skills. In many cases (not all of them), trying to communicate with an engineer in normal human speech is a task in itself. Given this difficulty with communication, trying to have an engineer write something intelligibly for you is even more challenging.

With the advent of the industrial era, companies traditionally had engineers write the user documentation for their products. As many experienced technical writers know, using engineers as writers can have disastrous results.

For the few companies smart enough not to use engineers, they hire the next best thing: tech writers who have industry-specific knowledge. The better writers of this lot are willing to learn up on the matter at hand (thus the industry term "subject matter expert" or "SME").

"Old World" vs. "New World" Tech Writers

Not only have I worked as a technical writer in the software industry, I have also documented for the heavy trades. I even went so far as to sell myself as an "industrial consultant" with a penchant for documentation. I consider my work in this arena as a significant career accomplishment. (see my articles on centrifuges).

Because of this broad experience, I have seen two distinctively different work environments for tech writers. I call these the "old world" and "new world" work environments.

These tie directly into...

Work Environment Versus One's Personality

Many hiring managers think tech writing is tech writing, and that there should be no value in discussing work environment.

I strongly disagree.

Before we go any further, we have to be clear on what this means for tech writers:

"Old World" technical writing generally involves documenting concrete subject matter. The work environment in which you'd find yourself would be closer to the classical trades such as machining and heavy industry. Frequently the skills required of an old world tech writer involves some mechanical ability and a willingness to get one's hands dirty. We're talking work places like factories, production floors, and assembly lines.

"New World" technical writing involves documenting abstract subject matter. The work environment is best exemplified by the movie Office Space. Here you're are talking about software and would be doing some light hardware documentation. In this environment dress code would be shirt-n-tie / formal skirt. You would say things like "I'll e-mail it to you after lunch", and see a lot of your colleagues looking at their iPhones.

Given these two general work environments, which would be the better one for you?

Trends In Tech Writer Outsourcing: It's a Cycle

As with any job, to become a contract or outsourced technical communication consultant can be good or bad - depending on the business climate and your employer's ability to cope.

During the 1980s, being an independent contractor was all the craze. I knew of some technical writers who partnered with engineers in some consulting gigs that raked in some decent money. However, due to widespread indiscretions in business practice, outside consultants began to suffer a bad rap and got canned. As a result, independent tech writers suffered along with the rest. The trend that followed this was a scramble to become an in-house technical writer. The ensuing sense of security gave tech writers a few years' respite.

However, in the last ten years the push towards globalization has thrown new light on the value of outsourcing. It seems recently that almost every role - including tech writing - has been tossed into the outsourcing blender. Once again, in recent months folks fortunately seem to be seeing outsourcing as another unnecessary fad, and companies are hiring tech writers back within their fold.

This said, now is a good time to look into changing one's career to tech writing.

This leads us up to...

A Warning on Certifications As A Tech Writer

In Andrea's original question, she mentioned the possibly of acquiring certifications as a way to jump-start a career as a technical writer.

While there's certainly much to be said about your efforts along this route, please remember many certifications require a relatively short time to earn. Depending on whom they are issued by, certification could easily be had for almost anyone willing to dish out the money. With the bad rap that "diploma mills" have gotten in recent years, a well-seasoned hiring manager's outlook on mere certification may be sullied, circumspect at best.

On the good side, more conservative employers may view your long-term efforts more favorably if they saw you studied tech writing for one or more years in a formal educational environment.

Formal Study as a Technical Writer

We cannot look upon the diploma mill phenomenon as entirely bad, for it begat something good. It has in part prompted some "legitimate" learning institutions to restore the image that certification lost.

Up until several years ago, the best qualifications hiring managers could identify for a technical writer was a degree in Journalism or English. While having one of these two degrees is a good move, Journalism or English is not an exact match for the requirements demanded of a tech writer. To answer this, it seems that more formalized education in technical writing has sprung up finally.

As recently as five years ago, mention of a "degree in technical writing" was unheard of. Fortunately now there are offerings for Bachelor degrees in Technical Writing or "Technical Communication". Some are sponsored by recognized names in education, and may come as an extension of their existing English or Journalism departments. Among these are curricula offered by Carnegie Mellon University - Bachelor of Science in Technical Writing and Communication.

Aside from formalized education be sure not to forget...

Your Past Experience Is Certainly Relevant

There is also much to be said about the diverse - and seemingly irrelevant - backgrounds from which technical writers have sprung.

A tech writers' practical experience in other careers may later end up being very valuable. In my case it certainly did. Because of my past experience in foreign languages, I now travel internationally as a technical writer.

How did I get here?

I started with a degree in Oriental Studies at my university, specializing in Mandarin Chinese language and Chinese linguistics. I also took a double minor in Renewable Natural Resources (say "park ranger") and German language (say "Ausgezeichnet!).

Not unlike many folks, after graduating from school I found work having absolutely nothing to do with my college studies. I took what work I could: ranging from pushing a mail cart, truck driving, living in a monastery, and then fortunately I found the opportunity to move to China and work in international air-sea-land freight logistics. While in China, I helped to procure machinery parts and then assemble entire factories. After returning to the USA, I then signed on with several temp agencies and landed a very low-key job formatting some documents.

That job was the start of my technical writing career.

Since then I have worked 10+ years in hardware, software, education, writing for the Web, and writing for heavy industry. More recently I write for the medical device industry, and this job takes me traveling to China frequently where I can use my Mandarin language skills.

Do not be disheartened by what you perceive to be an irrelevant work background.

If you worked previously as a bank teller, then you can find work as a technical writer specializing in the banking industry. Your experience in banking is a strong foot in the door. After that, just make darn sure you are a decent writer.

To be a good writer, yes, it certainly does help if you have a gift with words. If you think you are merely okay as a writer, consider this: once you find that if you write exactly as you speak, you can easily jump up the writing quality ladder in clarity and readability. How to do this? Try speaking into a recorder about whatever it is you wish to write. Then transcribe it. An even easier way to do this is to use voice recognition software. (Read about this by clicking here.) FYI: I "wrote" this entire article using voice recognition software.

After you have your writing skills down, you might want to know...

Other Ideas?

Aside from this, here are some other ideas:

Volunteer Work as a Technical Writer. If you're uncertain where to apply your skills, try any place. Try doing technical writing projects for the local library, the school you're attending, a fire department, or even your church. Rack up the experience and get some reference letters in exchange for your work. You may even try offering some volunteer work to a prospective employer that would normally hire a tech writer. Who knows, they might like your work so much that they will hire you!

Do an Internship. If you're a student, what better way to learn up by interning directly with a company that needs tech writers?

"Shadow" a Technical Writer. If you know a friend or acquaintance who works as a technical writer, then ask them to obtain permission with their employer to have you tag along for one or two days. Attend some meetings. Shake some hands. You may learn hard and soft skills that could later prove invaluable in your new career as a tech writer.

Write Mockup Projects. In the absence of any readily available alternatives, try making up some technical writing work. By this I mean you could create documentation about something, anything - and then review them with others to get feedback. Preferably your mockup project would be relevant to the industry in which you wish to work. Post your project to the web and showcase it for online discussions. Get those creative juices flowing, and be willing to accept constructive criticism on your work.

What Else?

While plenty been written about the tech writing trade, these words serve as some discussion to help you think over what has proven (at least for me) to be a growing and rewarding career.

Get out there, try some trail-run tech writing, talk with seasoned writers and ask them about the benefits and pitfalls. With this arsenal of information, you will be well armed for jumping into the world of technical writing and technical communication.

Good luck!