Sharp Words

I had a different topic planned for this week, but I’ve had a couple of queries lately about starting a career as a technical writer. So, I thought I’d have a go at explaining just how to go about it.

In the background
In my experience, technical writers have a variety of backgrounds. Some were engineers or developers or testers or technical support staff who were asked to write documentation and found they enjoyed it; some came straight into the job from doing something completely unrelated; some studied technical communication at college or university.

Actually, the academic route seems more common in the US; over here in the UK, there are no bachelor’s degrees that I know of, although several universities including Portsmouth and Sheffield Hallam offer MAs in tech comms. In addition, the ISTC now offers an open learning course for technical communicators.

The one thing that technical writers (or authors or communicators) all have in common is that they’re very good at writing their own language (and possibly others) and that they like or can easily get to grips with technology.

Looking for jobs
As mentioned, there are academic courses that will teach you how to be a technical writer; there are plenty of short courses on offer too, so many that I’m not going to provide links. I did do one many years ago, after I’d already started work as a tech writer, but the company that supplied the training no longer exists as far as I know.

But even if you don’t have any kind of formal training or official experience under your belt, there’s no reason not to apply for a technical writing position. Look out for job adverts for junior or graduate positions, and don’t be afraid if you don’t have the ‘degree in computing or related discipline’ or ‘degree in English’ or ‘1-2 years’ experience’ that they might be looking for. If you can show you have a good grasp of the language you’ll be writing in and can demonstrate technical knowledge or interest, particularly if you have done something relevant (designing a website or writing support emails, for example), then it’s worth trying for a position.

Note: make sure that your CV/resume is perfect! No-one is going to take a would-be technical writer seriously if there are grammatical or spelling errors, or if the layout is clumsy or confusing.

You might need to provide samples of work before or at your interview; you might have to sit a technical writing test. Be prepared (ask if either are likely if you’re not told). Again, these are good chances to show that you can do the job even if you have no formal experience as a technical writer. Be confident in your own abilities! It can’t be that hard a job after all, if I can do it…

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Technical Writing Tuesdays: index of posts