Tech Writer Today Magazine - TechWhirl
Technical writing and technical communications news, articles and resources for technical writers and technical communicators.
We see a growing consensus that the lines between traditional departments or team responsible for communication activities blurs a little more each year. For technical communication practitioners this represents either huge opportunity or imminent threat. And it's this perspective that we want to explore during February as we discuss "When worlds collide." This week's technical communication poll question allows us to lay a foundation for that discussion. Continue reading ...
Last week I mentioned an old thread from the TechWhirl email discussion list in which I claimed “It’s all Marketing.” This week one of the continuing threads concerns how to label a role/process in which data is analyzed and presented (usually visually). The role Steve Janoff described sounds a lot like Business Intelligence, at least according to how the leading vendors describe it. Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of discussions that center on what we should call ourselves, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there may never be one overarching term to describe what we do. And despite the inherent need to categorize and label everything for purposes of findability, this may be a good thing. Continue reading ...
When considering going into the freelance writing business, one of the hardest questions you have to ask yourself is: “How do I make a real living doing this job?” If you've been working as a full-time employee for awhile, that question becomes “Can I maintain my existing standard of living working as a freelancer?” Continue reading ...
Any technical writer working as a contractor knows the importance of self-marketing. Though referrals and agencies are fine ways to secure contracts, finding a new client completely on your own is like discovering buried treasure. Just how do you find unadvertised companies in need of technical writers? Here are five less-traveled routes. Though they don’t [...] Continue reading ...