What does it take to be a technical writer? This topic has been brought to mind once again by a mentoring request from a colleague. This person is very interested in making the switch to technical communication.
Technical communicators (also called technical writers, documenation specialists, publications specialists, and sometimes with specialized experience, information developers and information architects) come to the field from many different backgrounds, educational and otherwise. I know people in technical communication who were English majors, sure, and others who were fortunate enough to have access to get a degree in Technical Communication. Others come from backgrounds more varied and esoteric (MIT, anyone?).
I’m an Art major who minored in English due to a strong interest in writing since I was very small. I”ve written short stories, poetry, newsletter articles, and had a non-fiction article published in a magazine. I came into the field because I was in the right (write) place at the right time, and I had a lot of writing experience in my career as a public relations specialist. And, I was already familar with writing instructions, as well as writing news releases (just the facts, ma’am), training materials, newsletters, and so on.
So, educational background can be varied, as well as discipline. Some tech writers I have worked with started out as nurses, engineers of various stripes, analysts, secretaries and administrative assistants (who do lots of writing, by the way), scientists, computer techs, marketing folks, fiction writers, and more.
Experience is needed to move into technical writing, and you might say, “How do I get experience when I don’t have any? And no one will hire me without it?” You may be surprised to find that you have some valid experience already. Have you ever written a policy and procedure document? How about instructions for accessing a system at work, or using the office copier? Did you contribute to a request for proposal (RFP), or answer one? That, my friend, is technical writing experience.
If you really don’t have experience, but you want to get some, you can volunteer to document open source software (see sourceforge.org) or help out as an editor. You can learn a lot and garner some great documentation samples to put in a portfolio.
Other suggestions: Take a class; join your local Society for Technical Communication Chapter, and trawl Download.com or Softpedia.com for software that needs some documentation.
Good luck and welcome to the profession. If I can help you, let me know.
Diana
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