Comments on: Transitioning from Literary Studies to Technical Communication

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:07:20 +0000

Erin, experience is the key.

By: Juno

Juno — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:31:33 +0000

haha ^^ nice, is there a section to follow the RSS feed

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:47:31 +0000

Erin, employers are more interested in your writing skills and experience. People usually have a variety of majors in tech comm careers. I have an MFA in creative writing.

By: Erin

Erin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:20:13 +0000

I’m a little bit in the same situation. I’m in my senior year of college and I’m a creative writing English major, yet I want to do Technical writing for a career. However, I’m slightly terrified my resume is going to get laughed at when they say “creative writing major.” Do jobs really look that deep into it, or are they more concerned about the writing skills?

By: Post-undergraduate paths and careers | just write click

Post-undergraduate paths and careers | just write click — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:51:29 +0000

[...] recently read Tom Johnson’s post in response to an English and technical writing undergraduate major conside…. Rather than post a comment, I thought I’d write a post on my blog as a trackback. [...]

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:07:43 +0000

I have this post bookmarked because it’s so thought-provoking for me. I think I have my mind wrapped around technical writing well enough. If I went back to school, it might very well be for English literature. Or maybe for tech comm, depending on my mood!

By: Becoming a technical writer

Becoming a technical writer — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:02:37 +0000

[...] technical communications blogger (and my pal) Tom Johnson linked to that post and garnered some interesting [...]

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:33:00 +0000

This is a great post with a lot of helpful insight.

Whether a masters degree in TC should be pursued seems like a pretty conflicted issue with this post. What are your opinions about certificate programs vs. graduate degrees? Many of you think that having experience can’t substitute for a degree, which may make getting a certificate in TC more worthwhile because it exposes you to the field, but in a shorter amount of time.

Though, maybe a resume with a degree may be more marketable?

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:49:57 +0000

I would ammend someone’s previous comment above. I would not say you should become a technical writer because you want to communicate. I would say you should become a technical writer because you love organizing information and presenting it in a logical manner. Not that the previous comment is incorrect, I would simply put things a bit differently.

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:16:42 +0000

Oh, and I humbly disagree that technical writing can’t be self-taught. After all, I taught myself. I have a certificate in TW from 1983, but I consider myself to be “street-educated.” I learned much of it on the job.