Technical Writing

Technical Writing




 



Our Course

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 placement referral services in the state of Minnesota?

Answer: Yes. We get orders for technical writers from every state. Not in Minnesota yet, but in Natik, Massachusetts, where a large software Company sought our help in adding to their staff of 22 technical writers, and in Connecticut, where we have had a Technical Writer working on explaining robotics equipment for two years, and at a downtown New York City Publishing Company, where we placed three technical writers.

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 manuals, online Help, Web-based Help for many high-tech companies, in 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.

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 I will 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 manuals, online Help, Web-based Help for many high-tech companies, in 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: Deborah wanted to know more about what our online course covers, and whether or not it teaches XML and FrameMaker.

Answer: You wanted to know more about what our course covers. Here’s a partial list:

Focus on the reader
Make a task list
Produce an outline
Write parallel headings
Use left justify only
Put text under each heading
Use numbered steps
Use bulleted lists
Eliminate all passive verbs
Use graphics
Add callouts to graphics
Use present tense only
Use commas correctly
Use capital letters correctly
Include articles
Master hyphens, parentheses
Use apostrophes correctly
Use terms consistently
The rule of 1,000 knives

In a $245. online course, we cannot teach XML or FrameMaker. Anyway, companies increasingly put all of their documents and instructions on a Wiki Web site. When making entries into a Wiki site, you just type. You don’t need to know FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Epic Editor, or other software technical writers have used heretofore. But you do have to know how to edit, as per the 19 writing rules above, plus other rules we teach in our course.

To get a job as a Technical Writer, you need to show sample instructions. In our course, you produce those, correctly. Our editors mark up your draft, correcting your English where necessary.

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 manual, a company may give you a chance.

But how do you get the sample manual?

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 37 rules we teach in ‘How to Do Tech Writing,’ on www.TECHwriters.com.

Question: My background is in electronics, communications and electronic test equipment calibration in the United States Navy, and telecommunications and networking with a company in San Jose, CA. With the telecom company I installed and maintained equipment. In the process of performing upgrades, hardware and software I began to edit the upgrade instructions. As a project I took upon myself to build a web based system to link all of the instructions needed to perform various upgrades. I have no degree, but have been writing various genre for many years. My question is, 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:

With the telecom company, I installed and maintained equipment.

Instead of:

With the telecom company I installed and maintained equipment.

Or:

In the process of performing upgrades, hardware and software, I began to edit the upgrade instructions.

Instead of:

In the process of performing upgrades, hardware and software I began to edit the upgrade instructions.

Or:

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 34 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.

Answer: Doing well in our course means that you read, practice and then USE what we teach you when producing two actual, real user guides.

If you can write two manuals 'up to code,' you have something very intriguing to show someone at a small Company who needs a Technical Writer. If they see it, they get that you can, in fact do this kind of work. You just go to industry trade shows in your area, show your manuals, and--I believe--someone will hire you as an entry-level Technical Writer. I don’t know in what town you live. Starting salary for an entry-level Tech Writer varies by location.

Question: Should a student do well in your course, would you be more than willing to hire them onto your tech. writing team?

Answer: Our clients actually hire the tech writers we submit to them. We don’t do the hiring. Our clients mostly want a combination of Java Programmer AND experience producing seven or more high-quality manuals in Tech. Pubs. departments at software, chip, or networking companies.

Question: If not, how much do you invest in the career placement of your students?

Answer: For the $245 fee we charge for 'How to Do Tech Writing,' we provide a Professional Editor to tell you how to make your two manuals 'up to code.' That’s huge. In the field of technical writing, you get a job based on the quality of the pages they look at in manuals you wrote. We do not submit your manuals to potential clients for you, along with your resume. You must do that, where you live.

Question: In general, what would a reduced salary level be for a technical writer who has done well in your class and is just getting his foot in the door?

Answer: If you live in San Jose, you have a lot of competition from writers who have already worked in three or four software or chip companies writing tech doc. They have seven or more manuals (or online Help systems) to show a potential employer. But we do see job openings for interns in Silicon Valley. You could definitely, I believe, get an intern job.

In Idaho, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Wisconsin they have no tech writers. I know this. We’ve had orders for them from there, and they do not exist. So, depending on where you live, apply to ads for a Tech Writer IF YOU HAVE MANUALS TO SHOW / you have taken our online course, in which you write manuals. Otherwise, forget about it, as they say in New Jersey (where they also do not have many tech writers).

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 $245. 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: 38 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 manuals, nor do they know that only with sample manuals 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 Silicon Valley 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 manuals.

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.

Question: I have a degree in Chemical engineering and do not work currently. I have a 'dependent' Visa.

• Do I qualify to take this course?
• Is the certificate offered by your institution recognized globally, like in India?
• Would you help me with placement and job searching?
• Since I would be new to this field, how far would it help me in starting a new career?

Answer: Yes, you qualify to take our online course, 'How to Do Tech Writing.' In fact, we noticed some grammar and spelling errors in your writing of English. Our editors will point our all of your English writing mistakes and tell you how to correct them.

We only offer a Certificate of Completion. That's different from 'certification.' Many American universities offer two-year courses of study they call 'Certificate in Technical Writing.' We're a private company, a placement agency. Not a university.

In our course, you write two manuals, with illustrations and numbered steps. Our editors point out any mistakes you make in your sample manuals after you turn them in to us. You can then clean them up and have sparkling writing samples to show. That's how you get a job as a Technical Writer, by showing good sample manuals.

Question:

I have an undergrad degree in Community Psychology, have experience in proposal writing, and am looking at getting a certificate in Technical Writing. Can you tell me if you agency would hire someone with this type of background? And if there is a specific type of certificate program you see is adequate? Thanks so much.

Answer:

The companies who hire the largest numbers of technical writers, for the longest durations, make hardware and software products. These companies need software and hardware user guides. They cannot hire an ‘unknown,’ they must see that you know how to write a user guide, with numbered steps.

That’s why we offer our online course, ‘How to Do Tech Writing.’ If you take it and do the homework, you actually write two real manuals. Our editors give you corrections to make, to make your portfolio of manuals more impressive (and desirable) to a prospective employer.

If you learn the writing rules we teach in our online course, ‘How to Do Tech Writing,’ and follow those rules when you write your two manuals, we can then recommend you to an employer in your area and tell him or her that you do, in fact, know how to write a good user guide, and have the samples to prove it!

If you decide to spend the tuition and the two years to enroll in and complete a certificate program, make sure you understand how many real manuals they guide you to write, and if you write manuals about software or hardware or medical devices before you complete the two-year program..

In tech writing, it’s all about your sample user guides that you yourself wrote.