How to Break into Technical Writing

From 2000, through most of 2005, companies downsized and did not hire many technical writers, or anyone else.

Companies cannot now find the experienced technical writer who they need. Some company has already hired almost all technical writers who have worked in Technical Publications departments, know the complete tech. pubs. cycle, understand Java, XML, C# and .NET. Companies with openings for such experienced technical writers get no candidates when they advertise. Very, very soon, they will have to start entry level people who can learn the technology and how to write a decent manual or online Help on the job, like they did in the 1970s and 1980s.

First, you have to write—a lot. At least 10 pages a day. Those who succeed at tech writing probably always thought of themselves as good writers. Writing always came easy to them. They enjoy doing the hard thinking called planning and outlining first. They enjoy doing research, interviewing, reading, then making the right decisions about what to include in user instructions. Then they attack the writing. Never a problem for them.

Tech writers can’t stand sending any document out with a mistake in it. They obsessively catch all mistakes and fix them. We call this proofreading, and you absolutely must proofread before your employer launches the directions you wrote for, say, 200,000 customers.

They have mastered writing perfect English, with no mistakes. Companies like to hire a Technical Writer who went through the arduous process of earning a B.A. degree. Professors marked up the college papers such writers turned in, and they eventually learned how to use commas, apostrophes, articles, and capitalization correctly.

Technical writers must become super users of some very difficult applications, such as FrameMaker, RoboHELP, Visio, HTML, Quadralay Web Works Publisher, and Microsoft Word. You use the most advanced features of these programs as a Technical Writer: styles, templates, conditional text, and XML output.

Writers who succeed at this career have to constantly learn new, difficult software. They learn a new application without going insane. They catch on to using new software quite easily. They can figure it out or learn how to use it on their own, with a reference book.

The pages (or screens) tech writers produce have to look polished. Their pages have white space, neat, properly-aligned numbered steps, bullets, and text.

Our writers (the best technical writers) produce pages and screens that look like a freshly cleaned bathroom: shiny chrome faucets, clean, folded white towels, gleaming floor, a fresh, new bar of soap. Good tech writers use the principles of good graphic design to achieve this attractive effect. They often hire real graphic artists to help them select great-looking fonts, covers, and page layouts.

They don’t allow big, long paragraphs. Too much text not only looks ugly, people won’t read it.

Getting a job as a technical writer works much like getting a job as a wedding photographer: you have to show your previous work. That’s why, in our online course on this Web site, we teach you how to write two, real manuals, and edit them for you.

Find out if any college technical writing program you’re about to take has you writing real manuals or online Help. You must have samples to get your first job.

We have such a shortage of technical writers now, the time will soon come when—if you talk them into it—a company will let you try it, on the job. You’ll have to accept a low salary, and work in a Tech. Pubs. group with an Editor and other writers who can teach you what to do. But you can learn it on the job. Just follow a good style guide, like the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications. And take our course on this site: How to Do Tech Writing.