Our Course

I am an experienced grant writer (nonprofit, education sectors) and I wish to pursue opportunities in the corporate sector.

I have gotten calls from recruiters to do technical writing, but am often asked if I have at least five years of experience. I am puzzled on how to build a portfolio and gain relevant experience that will satisfy the inquiries of prospective employers.

Here are my questions for you:
1.What recommendation(s) could you offer someone in my position, in terms of professional marketing?

2.What are the best associations or professional networks to tap for resources and future opportunities?

3.I notice that some companies request advanced MS Office and Visio software knowledge. Are there other software packages I should be trained in?

4.Also, what fees are associated with your training?

5.Is your training program formally endorsed by any technical or academic institution?

6.How long does it take to complete the course?

7.Will I receive a professional certification at the close of the program?

Answer: 1.What recommendation(s) could you offer someone in my position, in terms of professional marketing?
- First, come up with the key words people would Google if they wanted your skills, expertise, services. I came up with technical writer to drive people to my website.
- Second, create a website that convinces people you know how to deliver <__________________>. (Focus on ONE service, one activity you do well for customers, such as grant writer.)
- Third, call Direct Placement (www.directplacement.co ): 1-800-339-0544. For <$________>/mo., any one anywhere in the world who Googles your keywords (see Second, above) sees your website on page one of results and calls you for your services.

2.What are the best associations or professional networks to tap for resources and future opportunities?
You don’t get any work by going to meetings of professional organizations. You get work by having a good portfolio of samples to show prospective employers, and by driving people to your website. Prospective employers no longer go to meetings of professional organizations. They just Google what they need.

3.I notice that some companies request advanced MS Office and Visio software knowledge. Are there other software packages I should be trained in?
For technical writing, you can try to get training in FrameMaker, RoboHELP, Java APIs for technical writing, MySQL, AutoCAD or SolidWorks.

4.Also, what fees are associated with your training?
You pay $285. with a credit card to get a user name and a password for our online, self-paced course, ‘How to Do Tech Writing,’ on www.Techwritesr.com .

5.Is your training program formally endorsed by any technical or academic institution?
We’re not a University or a College. But many technical writing courses at colleges do not teach how to write numbered-step user guides. They do not know what people hire technical writers to do. We do know, and know what KIND of writing samples somebody who needs a Tech Writer looks for in writing samples. It’s a very unique kind of writing, and we teach you to do it.

6.How long does it take to complete the course?
That depends on how quickly you absorb the 36 writing rules we teach (36 things the very best technical writers do); write your assignments, proofread your writing, fix mistakes in your writing (after we teach you how to correct your written English), submit your writing for our editors. You have a full year to complete the course.

7.Will I receive a professional certification at the close of the program?
We send you a certificate of completion if you write and turn in two user instruction manuals: one for hardware and one for software. You’d have to attend a college for a couple of years to get a professional certification. And you might not have any sample user guides at the end of such a long, expensive course of study.

Question: I am a Sr. content writer working in Chandigarh India. i am interested in the technical writing online course for better prospects. Can i also apply to job in the US through this.And what are the course charges.

Answer: Our online course, ‘How to Do Technical Writing,’ teaches you how to write an instruction manual, and then you write two of them.

Sometimes, a student learns the 36 writing rules we teach, follows them, and writes a very good set of instructions for use (for setting up a new printer). For those students who write well, proofread, and fix their mistakes, we sometimes recommend them for job openings we hear about in our tech-writer-placement agency.

But we never know who will write a good manual, and who will write a sloppy one, full of errors.

You receive editing comments back on the manuals you do write, so you can make them perfect, for portfolio samples. Technical writers get a job based on the quality of their portfolio sample.

To take the course, you charge $285. with a credit card, right on www.Techwriters.com .

Question: You graded my printer manual and want me to change every sentence with any of these words: is, are, was, were, be, been, am (passive verbs). Writing without passive verbs (or even really understanding them) is difficult for me.  Any suggestions?

I'm currently consulting in the Silicon Valley after many years of tech support, sys-admin and some project management too.

Answer:Work on it. It takes practice. It requires thinking.

For instructions (what we teach), think about each sentence starting with You can. . . Then, drop the You can and just start with the verb: Print, Insert, Load, Connect, Notice, Widen, or another ‘command,’ you-understood verb.

In your thesis abstract also, start each sentence with an actor (a subject). Somebody or some thing must always do something. So you write:
Subject – verb – direct object.

Any time you put in is, are, was, were, be, been the sentence has no subject, no actor. So your reader does not know who did it, or needs to do it: them, or the software.

Is, are, was, were, be, been discuss states of being. Nobody cares about states of being. We want to know who or what did it, who needs to do it. Rewrite each sentence in your abstract; think about the action you want to discuss, and who does that action. Or do the research to find out who did it. You can do this. Many do, on sports pages in newspapers, in Vanity Fair, USA Today, the New Yorker. People like to read such copy and text. It’s ALIVE, not dead (state of being).

Question:I was one of your first students in 1996, back when it was still the Webster Institute of Technical Writing, and want to see if you can send me proof of attendance, transcript, etc. to add to my portfolio. Please advise of the process.

I'm currently consulting in the Silicon Valley after many years of tech support, sys-admin and some project management too.

Answer:We were never a real university with an administrative department, so do not have transcripts.

I still think somebody who needs a technical writer mostly cares about how you write “instructions for use,” and wants to see how you wrote them . If you do not have samples of instructions for use to show a tech pubs manager, he or she will likely not hire you to do such work. They’ll think you’ve never done it. That was the whole reason we started the school (and e-learning course—asynchronous—meaning you do it at your own pace), so people can create two sample instruction files.

How we do tech writing has changed since 1996. Now we make it even shorter, more direct and concise, because people Google for the instructions they need and read the instructions on an iPhone, Droid phone or (eventually) an iPad or other tablet. Now we REALLY cannot write paragraphs of blah, blah, blah, who-cares sentences; just task-oriented headings and numbered steps. Technical writing looks and reads very, very differently than any other kind of writing you have ever done.

Question:Will never having had a technical writing full time job or never even working in a technical field prevent me from finding freelance work? Or a full time technical writing job? I have zero experience. But I do have a little journalism background.

Answer:If you go to computer shows and job fairs for high-tech products, or respond to ads for a junior tech writer on Craig’s list, etc., you have to show your samples you wrote (in our class), and talk some software or hardware or equipment maker into letting you write their customer instructions, for $35/hr.

You save the sample customer instructions you write for this company’s product(s), in your first, entry-level job you get, and show those (real world) samples to your next employer. After you have written instructions for use for two different companies, you’re on your way.

Stay working at each company for as long as you can stand. Employers like long-term job history. The more samples you have, the more money you can earn either as a contractor or a staff, perm. employee. I interviewed a woman last weekend who has written instructions for use (for VERY technical, networking products) about 50 times. She will make $65/hr., and she can work some off site.

In technical writing, it’s all about the writing samples you can show (that you wrote).

In our online course, you write two sets of instructions: one for hardware; one for software.

I hope you sign up for our sample-writing course on www.Techwriters.com and get started creating your portfolio of samples.

Question:I am particularly interested in gaining familiarity with manual writing and getting a better understanding of IT concepts. I read on your website that the course involves the production of two manuals. Is there some type of designing involved in the making of these documents or would I just have to write the content? Would you provide topics and guidelines to follow?

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide about this course.

Answer:Many American companies now outsource their technical writing to tech writers who live in Ireland. With sample instructions, you could possibly get an entry-level job as a tech writer there.

Our online course, ‘How to Do Tech Writing,’ on www.Techwriters.com teaches you what the finest instruction writers for software, chips, small and large equipment assembly, installation, operation, and maintenance do when they produce very, very high-quality user instructions (like Apple’s).

When writing user instructions for software or hardware, tech writers write very, very differently than any kind of other writing (such as papers in English classes, articles for a magazine).

To see the type of writing we teach you to do, go into Help from Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. When you press the F1 key while in any of those programs and type in something you’d like to do, you get short, accurate, to-the-point, numbered-step directions. We teach you how to write just like that, and then you write like that, for a printer and some software or a smart phone (your portfolio of samples). One of our professional editors gives you feedback on the manuals you submit to us, to point out where you did not follow one of our 37 writing rules (all easy to follow, if you just pay attention as you read the through the course and practice, then proofread and fix your draft).

Along the way in this course, we also teach you to write English correctly; that is, you learn when and when not to capitalize a word, include a comma, a hyphen, or a possessive apostrophe. You learn to create short, descriptive headings—very important today for customers who want to easily find what they need help with.

This course will elevate your writing skill enormously, in your e-mails, reports, proposals—whatever writing you do in any job.

Thank you for your inquiry. We hope you take advantage of all of this learning for under $300.

Question:I am interested in your on line Technical Writer course but want to check if it is the right course for me. Essentially I have been working as a Technical Writer now for more than three years producing User Guides for a software company and I am looking for a course that will advance my existing skills and also help me check that what I am currently doing is not a million miles off the mark.

Can you advise if the course you provide would contain enough advanced content to benefit me and my employer?

Answer:Nobody arrives at point B of knowing how to do state-of-the-art technical writing on their own, from their own research.

Most good tech writers worked in a couple of technical publications departments at fairly large software companies where a tech pubs manager and probably an editor in the department showed them this very unique style of writing—so totally different than how everyone else writes letters, reports, English papers, or magazine articles.

Back in 1997, our owner, Dorothy Webster, gathered together a very large group of her top contract tech writers (who she placed in jobs over the years) and paid them to specify exactly what they did in order to write easy-to-follow instructions. She then made the 27 best-tech-writing rules they all agreed upon into a ‘brick and mortar’ school, which we ran for eight years. We graduated 385 students, many of whom still work in the field in the SF Bay Area.

Our online course reflects the main guidelines this course taught, such as:

• Write only active verbs
• Write in present tense only (no wills)
• Write in numbered steps
• Write task-based headings
• Write only what people most likely want to DO with the software (and nothing else)
• Use formatting principles that ensure easy reading

Question:Does your course provide CPE or any kind of professional ed credit? When was this course originally designed? Is it current to today's expectations?

Answer: Our company places technical writers in jobs, nation wide, and we have done for 20 years, so we know what employers of technical writers want to see: writing samples of user instructions ‘up to code.’ Most community colleges and even university programs that provide an education credit do not teach you how to write customer instructions, nor require that you write them. In our course, you do get a certificate of completion—if you get a grade of C or higher on the two manuals you write and submit. But mainly, you learn how to write instructions—unique writing that only writers of cookbook recipes know how to do. Plus, we teach you how to fix common English writing mistakes that many people make, such as always telling your reader what an acronym like CPE stands for.

We teach students in our online course how to write user instructions for hardware and software, then we have you actually write two manuals, you submit them, we edit them for you so you can have sample manuals ‘up to code.’ The desired writing style remains the same, which keeps our course relevant and current. The tools change. Tech writers use FrameMaker and RoboHelp less now, and might type into Microsoft’s SharePoint or into a wiki, which has the same user interface as Word. It’s not about the tools used, it’s about the writing style, which our course teaches.

Technical writing resembles photography. If you want a job as a wedding photographer, you have to show a client wedding photographs. If you want a job writing customer instructions for a high-tech product, you have to show customer instructions you wrote for a high-tech product.

Our course fills that need.

We hope you take it, and learn this very, very different kind of writing, technical writing.

Question:I was wondering if you know where I can go to learn FrameMaker, which seems to be a requirement of many tech writing jobs.

Answer:Tech writers write in plain MS Word now, James, or plain text that goes into a content management system (CMS) or IBM's SharePoint. All company content sits in a database now and appears on a Web site that users bring up on their laptops, Blackberries, or iPhones, in plain, straightforward text-with numbered steps.

It's the WRITING that counts, not the tool. Technical writing looks and reads very differently than all other writing. It's unique: short, concise, direct, employs all active verbs, and never uses any passive verbs (is, are, was, were, be, been). Tech writers (the great ones) write in present tense only (no will, ought to, might, could, may). They break up big paragraphs of blah, blah, blah with descriptive, short headings. They do not write big paragraphs of blah, blah, blah.

You can see how great tech writers write by going into Help in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint and asking for an instruction on how to do something in any of those applications.

In 'How to Do Tech Writing' on www.Techwriters.com, we teach you to write
similarly to Microsoft's Help instructions. That's how we write user instructions now, eliminating all fancy FrameMaker styles. Writers USED to spend four hours of their day formatting in FrameMaker. No more.

We hope you take our online class in technical writing. I'll look for the sample manuals you write (after we teach you how to write like Microsoft's writers do in their Help instructions). This special technique requires lots of thinking first. All good writing requires that, and we teach you how to do that, first.

Question:Would you mind recommending a project that would be a good example of technical writing? Is there a particular software package (free, hopefully) that you think would look good? I'd appreciate any help. I've started working on a user's guide for an XML editor. This way, I can improve my XML coding skills and learn a valuable tool. Will this suffice for my second manual I submit to 'How to Do Tech Writing?'

Answer:Yes. Write about how to write XML coding.

Just remember to tell the reader (Module One):
1. Who uses the tool or this XML code, most commonly
2. What the tool or this XML code accomplishes
3. Where you use the tool or this XML code (under what circumstances)
4. When you use the tool or this XML code, to do what
5. How you use the tool or this XML code. Your numbered steps go in
these sections.
6. Why you use the tool or this XML code.

Question:I was interested in taking the online course at www.techwriters.com; however, I just wanted to make sure that I am really going to be able to make a portfolio in this class. In the last class that I took, the teacher said that I can feel free to write anything that I want for my portfolio and she would look at it. So, I just wanted to make sure, in your course, do you give clear guidelines what to write about? Meaning that even if I don't have any related experience at work, would I still know what to write about?

Answer:We’re a placement agency for technical writers, and have specialized in that business for over 20 years.

We know what clients look for in the technical writer they want to hire, and what determines whether or not someone can, in fact, perform the difficult job of technical writing: SAMPLE USER INSTRUCTIONS.

User instructions do not look like or read like any other kind of writing (except recipes in a cook book). We need more tech writers to place with clients who want them, nationwide. So we have a vested interest in teaching you how to do this very unique kind of writing, then having you do some of it, so we have more people who in fact can do it (because they have done it).

So yeah, we tell you what to write and how to write it in ‘How to do Tech Writing’ on www.Techwriters.com .

We look forward to your taking this online course and seeing your user instructions that you write, based on the 35 tech writer writing rules we teach.

Question:If I take your course, what are the chances of me getting positions (contract or permanent) where I could telecommute from home and/or travel occasionally to an office?

Answer:You have to work on site at a software, chip, or other hardware company (the only businesses that need 1,000s of pages of documentation, four times a year for each new revision of the product). Software and hardware companies operate primarily in San Jose or other large cities. They will not use a writer who lives in Oklahoma, because the writer has to look at the product, ‘play with it,’ the companies will not give you the product to experiment with, and anyway, technical writers always run into problems trying to work the product and have to ask a developer what to do to move forward. You also need to attend meetings, to hear about changes in direction.

That’s fascinating, about the NO high tech in Oklahoma. I’m not surprised.

High-tech companies that move to, say Utah (one case I know of), eventually move back to Silicon Valley. They can’t find any programmers in Utah.

By the way, instead of becoming a technical writer, become a Java programmer. Everyone needs those, even in Oklahoma. (American children do not take math, do not know math, and we have no programmers. Only ones from India and China who move here, if we let them.)

Sorry I cannot give you a better prognosis for them hiring an off-site tech writer in Oklahoma.

Question:Are there any private companies in your region of sufficient stature and public exposure that they must have clear, crisp, technical writing—writing that conforms to the best editing authorities, such as The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, The Chicago Manual of Style, the New York Times style book, and Strunk & White?

Answer:I share your frustration over the shoddy, careless writing tolerated and accepted in user instructions.

But guess what? The latest trend in technical publishing technology will help us out in this struggle.

Increasingly, writers must write in chunks, or bricks, which now get tagged and put into XML content management systems (CMS). These publishing systems have document text definitions (DTDs). Writers MUST follow the imposed constraint of the DTD. They cannot write anything except prescribed sections: an introduction, a task procedure, and a reference section, for example. I like this. It keeps us from writing 36 pages of blah, blah, blah

Increasingly, they’re getting rid of everything but the task procedure section as they migrate content into an XML system. I love that. Readers of software and hardware documentation (except for chips) really only need to learn how to DO something. So DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) and XML labeling of content will impose straightforward, how to do it writing.

Praise the XML revolution.

Of course, we still have the problem of incorrect English and passive voice. And that problem will increase as more and more people for whom English is a second language will have to receive the baton from retiring American tech writers. We hope they will all take our online course, ‘How to Do Tech Writing’ on www.techwriters.com. It teaches them to use active verbs, articles, punctuation, commas, hyphens, and capital letters correctly, write parallel, frequent headings, and only give the reader what the reader needs.

Question: Is our course recognized nationally?

Answer: Lots of companies, nationwide, know about www.TECHwriters.com and our placement Agency, Webster Techwriters. But taking our online course does not equate to getting a degree in Technical Communications from Carnegie Mellon, for example. (They have a strong program.)

Currently, one can major in Technical Writing or obtain a Certificate in Technical Writing from a college such as San Jose State or D’Anza, a two-year college here in Silicon Valley. You no doubt can find a university or state college that offers a Technical Writing certificate near your home in Minnesota. That will take you two years of taking courses and cost you at least $5,000. No national accrediting agency recognizes an online, off-campus, Web-based course only offering one course, such as the Webster Techwriters’ course. When we had our ‘brick and mortar’ school in downtown San Francisco with another campus in Santa Clara, we did win national accreditation--from ACCET (the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training). We migrated that course curriculum into the online course we offer now for technical writers.

Question: Does this course give certification?

Answer: See above answer. However, When you complete our assignment, e-mail it to us, and receive a grade of C or above, we mail you a hard copy, lovely Certificate of Completion diploma, with an embossed seal. You can frame it and put it on your wall in your office.

Question: Do you have clients on the West coast who allow off-site employment?

Answer: Companies only give off site, work-from-home work to very experienced technical writers who have written user instructions, online Help, Web-based Help for many high-tech companies, in long-term jobs, for ten years.

Question: I work full time as a technical writer, but want to get a qualifying course. I have a few questions regarding your course:

1) What do I get when I cover the modules - a certificate? -and what does it equal to?
2) How do I get the certificate - by post mail, or electronically?
3) How much effort I will have to put in the training, as well as for what period of time should I cover all the modules?
4) What are the options after taking the certificate to get "working from home" assignments"?

Answer:

1) What do I get when I cover the modules - a certificate? -and what does it equal to?

If you complete your writing assignment, a set of instructions for users of hi-tech equipment, you receive a certificate of completion in the mail.

2) How do I get the certificate - by post mail, or electronically?

By post mail.

3) How much effort will I have to put in the training, as well as for what period of time should I cover all the modules?

It’s up to you, how much time you spend learning the rules the best technical writers follow, practicing those rules, then writing some real instructions and submitting your assignment to us for editing. Some go through our eight modules in three weeks; some take a year.

4) What are the options after taking the certificate to get "working from home" assignments"?

Companies only give off site, work-from-home work to very experienced technical writers who have written many online Help, Web-based Help samples for many high-tech companies, and long-term jobs for ten years. To get 100% off site work, you must have many impressive PDF files of user instructions you wrote while working in Technical Publications departments at well-known software or hardware companies. Even with that experience, our clients do not like it when the technical writer demands to work off site. Such demands usually result in the client cancelling the contract early.

I remember a large Company in Silicon Valley, a client of ours, where the editor worked at home in Boston, one of the tech writers worked in L.A., and another tech writer worked in Arizona. Their customer instructions were useless. The writers had never looked at the product, self tested their instructions on the product, talked face-to-face with a developer to find out what customers had to do to install, integrate, bring up live, operate, or troubleshoot the product. Tech writers must act like reporters: get the story, get the facts, then check what they wrote by following their own instructions on the new product in a lab inside the company.

Question: Keith sought some advice from us about beginning a career in Technical Writing. He said he lives in New Jersey, has a Ph.D. in Chemistry, and used to work as a sports writer. He wondered if he had a good chance to work as a technical writer with his background, and what training he needs to get started.

Answer: With a Ph.D. in Chemistry and work as a Chemist, MANY companies want you: companies who make medical equipment that analyzes cells and blood, companies that make other analytic equipment, companies that make software to help biologists compute DNA research. Also, drug companies need documentation to submit to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), documentation that recounts what happened in clinical trials for a proposed, new drug.

Some community colleges and universities offer courses and certificates in Technical Writing. Taking one such course does not guarantee that you can get a job as a tech writer, although with a Certificate in Technical Writing, a company may hire you.

Technical writers, like plumbers, carpenters, and electricians, learn their career and get better at it on the job. The more companies who have hired you to do technical writing, the more money you can charge. But with your Ph.D. in Chemistry and just one sample user guide, a company may give you a chance.

But how do you get the sample user instructions?

Take our course on www.TECHwriters.com . In it, you write a set of sample instructions. You submit the instructions to us and one of our editors gives you feedback, and shows you where you did not follow the 35 rules we teach in ‘How to Do Tech Writing,’ on www.TECHwriters.com.

Question: What are my chances of breaking into technical writing after taking your course without a formal degree? Any of your thoughts on this would be highly appreciated.

Answer: People in companies--and in the Army, Navy, and Air Force--like to put writers on the job of writing instructions who have a B.A. in English, History, or similar major.

Here’s why.

In order to have credibility, belief, trust, the manual or online Help has to use correct English. If the instructions have tons of mistakes, they seem sloppy, careless, not professional, untrustworthy. Companies who hire you as their technical writer especially want their customers to perceive them as competent, professional, thorough, caring—a class act, so to speak.

A technical writer must write:

As a project, I took it upon myself to build a Web-based system to link all instructions for performing various upgrades.

Instead of:

As a project I took upon myself to build a web based system to link all of the instructions needed to perform various upgrades.

Or:

I have no degree, but have been writing in various genres for many years.

Instead of:

I have no degree, but have been writing various genre for many years.

Our online course, ‘How to Do Tech Writing,’ on www.techwriters.com , goes a long way in helping you learn correct subject-verb agreement, punctuation, use of commas, hyphens, correct capitalization, and 35 other writing rules the best professional writers follow. It’s not as thorough as a four-year degree in English, but it’s pretty darn good. You write a set of instructions, submit your writing to us, and we correct the English mistakes you make. That’s how you learn not to make them again.

Taking our course will improve your writing in your e-mails, job applications, reports, business letters, and anything else you write throughout the rest of your working life.

You can show the sample instructions you write in our course and maybe get a job as a technical writer. You have to show a sample in order to obtain such a job.

We look forward to your taking our course and giving you professional feedback on your English writing from one of our editors.

Question: I wanted to know how valid my credentials would be in industry's view if I were to do well in your course.

Question: I am looking for a serious tech writing course that includes exact info as to the education, experience and credentials of those that interact with me in an instructional role. Ideally, some academic qualifications, and some real work experience.

Answer: One $285. online technical writing how-to course cannot substitute for a two-year course of study on campus, with a variety of professors lecturing you in twenty different courses you take while getting your certificate in Technical Writing. In addition to the two years, such an on-campus program will cost you at least $5,000.

The very finest, top-tier technical writers in Silicon Valley designed our course: 35 writing rules the best technical writers follow.

Academic qualifications, such as Ph.Ds in English, don't mean that professors on a campus know ANYTHING about what high-tech companies want to see in your sample user instructions, nor do they know that only with sample user instructions can you get a job as a working technical writer.

In many technical writing certification programs they don't even have you write one manual during the two years. They have you writing reports, or newsletters as part of a team of four students. They just don't know what high-tech employers want and need. How could they? They have spent their lives on campus.

Our course designers and editors have Master's degrees in English, most of them. But mainly, they know the writing style that works for user instructions (from their 15 or more years of experience working as technical writers in high-tech companies).

We designed an asynchronous, as opposed to synchronous online course. In an asynchronous course (ours), you do not interact, live, with a teacher. You go through the writing rules one by one, learn them, practice them, then apply them to writing real user instructions.

In a synchronous course, you log on at a certain time and hear a teacher speak, see a teacher demonstrate things. We did not design a synchronous course.