Next semester, I’m taking a technical writing course. The goal is to find gainful employment that will let me use my communications degrees.
So my questions are:
Thanks,
Robin
Contract employment normally pays more but the drawbacks are no health insurance benefits, no paid vacation/holidays/sick days, no 401K employer match.
Your job prospects will depend greatly on your previous work experience and education. I’ve found that many of my jobs have arisen from either school or workplace contacts, or from particular aspects of my education. Have you taken any computer or science classes? Many tech writing jobs will require you to document software or medical/engineering processes, so experience with those can be almost as important as the tech writing training itself.
You should be on the lookout for opportunities to get some experience. I imagine you’ll hear about some internships and co-ops through your class.
I did technical writing (including freelancing) back about 15 years ago.
Sure. I got tech writing assignments despite never taking a writing course. However, I had done tech writing as part of my previous job assignments. Experience still trumps classroom learning in tech writing, though the courses can help you smooth off the rough edges.
I did a lot of writing in my jobs before having to freelance. Mainly, I’d contact people for technical writing jobs. Networking helped – I had a friend who was in the field and who would refer people to me for jobs she couldn’t take on.
You usually get more money per hour for freelance employment, but get no benefits. A temp job can pay very well. I was actually faced with the choice – a better paying one-year assignment, and a lower-paying permanent job, and I took the permanent one. The uncertainty of freelancing wasn’t for me, but you may feel differently.
One thing though…when people hire contractors for just about ANYTHING, they are looking for experience that will translate into a very short lead time on a project. Without a lot of experience, it’s going to be more difficult to get contract opportunities. Usually. Beware the company that hires you for a contract based you not having a lot of experience. They often throw everything including the kitchen sink at you, give you no support, and expect miracle results.
There are a couple of disciplines for technical writters. There are thos who are “(Technically) Writers” who want to take the words that come out of an engineer or programmer’s mouth and format them in a nice word document and call it a day, and there are those who are truly “Technical Writers” who can take the words which come out of an engineer or programmer’s mouth and turn them into something closely resembling the english language.
My wife is one of the latter, and I am damn proud of her abilities in that regard. It is hard, draining work to get nerds to sit down with you and tell you the ins and outs of something, especially because nerds usually a) would rather be back doing their nerdy work instead of chatting with you, or b) are too distracted by a woman talking to them 
Good luck to you in your endeavors.
I got an M.S. in Technical Communication, but ultimately found the field wasn’t for me. Do you have experience (or at least solid coursework) in any technical field? Have you worked in a technical environment? If not, think long and hard about how this might work for you. Many of the jobs involve documenting software day in and day out. If you are the kind of person who “could never be a programmer” this might not be for you. It’s really not all that different, IME.
My experience was negative, and obviously it works out better for some people. But in general I think it works out best for technical people who master the writing side than for communications people who learn a little about technology.
Also, most likely your class will focus on the writing aspect of technical writing. The actual work will almost certainly require mastery of a word processor/ desktop publishing/ help editor package to the nth degree. If you don’t at least know MS Word like a true expert, make it a point to learn a software package in depth to go along with your class.
A related field that is a little more people oriented you might want to consider is technical training.
(slightly off topic, but a related question:
How do technical writers get the technical knowledge to write a manual on a specific subject?
A course in tech writing can teach you how to write, but how do you know
what to write?
For example, say you are hired to write the manual for a computer graphics program.How do you learn that to specify the radius of an arc drawn between two points, a negative number results in the arc drawn from left to right and above the line, but a positive number draws the arc in a mirror image, below the line defined by the two points. And that the color of the arc will automatically match the color of the first point chosen, but not the second, unless the user holds the “Shift” key while clicking the mouse on the second point.
The programmer who spent a year writing the program knows all that, because he spent a lot of time deciding which mathematical formulas to use and how to take imput from the user. But if you are a freelancer, just hired for a month or two ,and are told to write the manual, how do you learn all the details you have to write about?1. Will that one course be sufficient to find a job?
Given the market today, I’d say maybe.
When I got into tech writing back in '83 or '84, you didn’t need a course because none existed; at least, not in my area. Now you can take two-year college courses leading to a certificate (I used to teach in such a program), and in some schools in the US, a degree in tech writing. Many employers whom I’ve spoken with refuse to hire any tech writer unless he or she can show a piece of paper stating that the person has completed a program in tech writing at some school somewhere.
So…one course? Maybe with your communications background, you’d be OK, but I won’t say more than that.
2. How does one get started in technical writing?
Find someone willing to hire you, really.
Make your resume show off your technical capabilities and writing skills, if you can. If you’ve worked in a tech company before, or in a tech division of some kind, play that up. If you’ve done any work writing for business before, play that up. However, don’t emphasize any poetry or fiction writing.
Do have some samples ready for an interview. Make them up if you have to: present a set of instructions for programming a VCR. (An old example, but I’m sure you get the idea.)
Tech writing interviews are strange things–I’ve had a three-hour grammar test sprung on me unexpectedly, been asked to write a procedure for tying my shoes, and been given fifteen minutes to write an explanation of how an internal combustion engine works. All during an interview. I’ve dragged along previously published manuals. And sometimes we’ve just talked about work for anywhere between one and five hours.
If after all that, they like you–well, you might get an offer.
3. Is there an income difference between contract employment and a permanent job?
Yes, usually a great one; because as others have pointed out, you get no benefits. I used to set aside a chunk of what I got paid “just in case,” as well as for taxes and such. But I charged double what I’d get on an hourly basis from a permanent job, and no client ever thought it was unreasonable.
I could probably comment a lot more on this topic, but I have a full afternoon. I’ll return though.
At my company there are a number of possible resources, not all of which will be available or practical for a given project:
Figure things out on your own by using the product
Read specifications written by the project manager, UI specialist, etc.
Read internal documentation written by the developers for the testers
Meet / email / phone developers/testers and ask for info
Look at the source.
The developers and testers will review whatever you come up with to correct errors and fill in the gaps (in theory, anyway)
YMMV, but I’d begin by looking at the specifications for that arc-drawing feature. Then I’d boot up the program and draw some arcs myself to see how the feature really worked. Finally, I’d check in with the programmer who worked on that feature, to confirm that my understanding of it is complete. I wouldn’t need specific knowledge of drafting, but my familiarity with graphics software packages and high-school geometry would be helpful.
Of course, I just demonstrated the technical writing technique of presenting the same information in a different format… Sorry for stealing your thunder, awldune!
My wife is a medical writer. The two thing that seems most important in getting new work are her resume (she has no official writing training, but a Masters in Biology) and clips. Getting stuff published somewhere gives an employer confidence that your writing is what they need. Stuff that’s relevant helps, but she’s send clips form other types of things she’s written about. I doubt fiction would help, though.
I worked with a technical writer on a manual for a very complicated (and expensive) EDA tool. All these are good - I don’t think looking at the code is going to help the average tech writer, though. I gave her a few examples which she ran and put in the manual (and which we shipped with the product) that helped illustrate the commands and output. I also worked with her on the outline of the manual.
She did a great job - we got very positive feedback. In fact, I think the manual might have been better than the product. 
Looking at the code is only helpful in very specific circumstances, and I don’t know of any other writers here who do it. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it.
I majored in English and have done technical writing and medical writing.
As mentioned above, there are two types of people who do this work:
[ol]
[li]subject-matter experts with advanced degrees who learn about writing, and[/li][li]writers who manage to master just enough of the material to get by.[/li][/ol]
The first category is in much greater demand. Depending on the intended audience of the documents to be produced, this is probably as it should be.