How to Become Technical Writer

Video Transcript

"You become a technical writer by training. This is not something you can do by instinct. It is a very specific skill, and fortunately, there are a lot of academic programs that address this. There's also the Society for Technical Communication, which will provide contacts in a business and a certain amount of guidance. To be a good technical writer, you have to understand, first of all, the technical material that you're working with, which means you need a science or engineering -- some kind of technical background. This can be self-taught, but you need to know this stuff. You can't just pick it up as you're going along. You need to be able to explain things clearly. Again, some people have the gift; most people don't. You probably don't. A lot of technical writers have degrees in technical writing or they've taken courses. It's a blooming field. A lot of community colleges and non-four year standard colleges will offer courses, extension programs, and so on. Get at least a couple of courses under your belt so you know what you're doing -- so you know the terminology of the field. Like any specialized field, it has a certain amount of its own jargon. And once you know you can do it -- once you're confident about that -- then it's just like finding any other kind of writing work. More technical writers have regular jobs as technical writers than a lot of other kinds of writers. So you can look for those kinds of jobs in all the usual places where you look for jobs. But again, there is some freelance work. Be in touch with local software companies. They need...they need people to write manuals. Be in touch with local engineering companies, engineering consulting companies. These are the kinds of places that are going to need technical writing. And once you've got a portfolio, you'll find it easier to build on that -- to get either more freelance work or to find yourself a regular job with benefits and all of the...all of those pleasures."