Not many of us started off here. Although it seems that the field has been growing steadily for twenty years, there haven’t historically been a lot of technical writing programs, and thus most technical writers began their professional lives as…something else. Of the technical writers I heard from, only four had been through a dedicated [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
This IS Your Dream Job!
Here are two questions to ask yourself: 1) when are you most content? (Not ‘happy’ per se, since happy moments are fleeting. 2) Does contentment ever happen for you during the workday? The average American worker spends 2080 hours per year on paid work.[1] Over 30 years, that adds up to 62,400 hours. That’s a [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Sliding into Technical Writing
I entered this career using a combination of persistence and dumb luck. I wanted to become a tech writer when I was in college, but the career ladder didn’t exist then as it does now. My parents cautioned me not to pursue it. They didn’t understand that one could make a living by writing instructions. [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Adventures in Publishing: Finding a Gig as a Computer Book Author
If you’ve been documenting software for any length of time, and if you still wander into bookstores, perhaps you’ve gazed wistfully at the shelf of books covering some of the tools and packages you use every day. As you page through the text, you think to yourself “There’s certainly not much here that I don’t [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
A Book of Your Own
Editor’s Note: The following piece, by the late, great Herman Holtz, was to appear as part of Herman’s “Hindsights & Insights” column. It is part of our collection of “classics”–articles that stand the test of time no matter how many technologies come and go. Published with permission. It seems, from what I read every day [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Technical Writing: Look Before You Leap
To many aspiring novelists, poets and journalists, working as a technical writer seems like the perfect stepping stone to their dreams. After all, you’ll be paid to put pen to paper–something every wannabe writer dreams of. So what if it isn’t the Great American Novel? You’ll still have time for your own writing in your [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Working Internationally: Advice and Thoughts
I’m an American technical writer working in New Zealand, and my jobs here have sent me to Singapore and Australia. When I told my friends and acquaintances that I was planning on moving to another country, their responses ranged from disbelief to envy. One person asked me, “Is that actually possible?” Others confessed that they [...] Read more of this technical writing article »