I received the following question from a reader: I’m a 20 year old college student and I just finished up my first year at a local community college and I was wondering what my major should be if I want to become a technical writer when I eventually graduate. Right now my counselors have me majoring in General Science (b/c my dream job would be … more »

If you’re looking for an opportunity to get some writing experience, consider joining the LDSTech Blog project. LDSTech is a site focusing on IT projects from the LDS Church for volunteer community members. For example, some projects have the goal of building an iPhone app, or making sites more accessible, or coming up with infographics. I’m heading up a project within this community called LDSTech … more »

This is a guest post by Michael Hobren. Michael is a technical and “marcom” contract writer, as well as a fictional novelist. He resides with his family in the Tampa, Florida area. As a technical writer, I don’t think my late father ever quite understood what I do for a living. I would try to explain to him what I did, but to no avail. … more »

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Best Careers 2011: Technical Writer – US News and World Report. It doesn’t amaze me that technical writer is listed in the top 50 careers. Technical writer appeared as a top 50 career in 2006 and 2009 in CNN Money. Each year there’s a lot of controversy about the description, but this year, some things are especially intriguing. US News … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Length: 50 min. This is a presentation I gave at BYU Idaho last week to students interested in entering professional writing. For the accompanying slides, see this post. For the overall question I was trying to tackle, see Students Contemplate Whether a Technical Writing Career Will Be Fulfilling.

While on my trip to BYU Idaho last week, I had an epiphany about why tech comm will always be the career path of last resort for students. As you recall, one of my desires was to open students up to the possibility of a career in tech comm, not as a sellout/fallback career, or a career of last resort, but one that they would … more »

Tomorrow I’m driving up to BYU Idaho to give a presentation titled “Technical Communication Careers: Getting Started and Finding Your Niche.” It’s part of their annual Pre-Professional Writing Conference for English and professional writing students. I like to go because I have an old colleague up there who teaches English (we spent 2 years in Egypt teaching at The American University in Cairo), and it’s … more »

This week’s question comes from Mary in New York: I am a loyal reader of your blog and have gained more from it than all the seminars and continuing ed courses I’ve taken–which cost me a good chunk of my salary. Recently, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend which I hope you might consider blogging about. I’m an experienced technical writer currently looking for work, and … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Length: 12 min. In this podcast (another monologue), I respond to more student questions about technical writing. The questions are as follows: Question 1 – Who/what are the people and purposes that you write for now? And in the past? Question 2 – What are the kinds of things that you write? Question 3 – What … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Length: 27 min. In this monologue podcast, I answer a student’s questions about the field of technical writing, including how I fell into it, what kinds of projects I work on, and other details. Her questions are as follows: What did you study in college and where did you attend? What degrees/certificates do you have? Did … more »

Students at Missouri State University asked me some questions about technical writing as a career. To provide a balance of opinion and perspective, I opened up the questions to my Twitter followers and asked them to respond as well. What is your job title? Eileen Potter: Senior Product Content Specialist (in June I changed positions within my company, previous title was Senior Technical Writer) Richard … more »

Recently a reader wrote me asking for advice on changing careers into technical writing. I asked for some colleagues to respond. Bill Albing, an information architect in North Carolina, and Alyssa Fox, a technical communications manager in Texas, responded to the question. With permission from Bill, Alyssa, and “Cedric” (the name I’ve given the reader), I posted the conversation here.

Alex Otil, a student at Northern Illinois University, recently interviewed me for an article titled Tom Johnson: A Modern Day Technical Writer. It’s a short article probably mainly of interest to students thinking of entering the field of technical writing. Students will also find the newsletter as a whole full of relevant information about entering technical writing. By the way, the title of the article definitely … more »

Epiphany: Cross Pollination Ultimately, what my colleagues had to say did have merit. There is a point that, in playing too many roles, you spread yourself too thin. You compromise your specialization and expertise as you step into unfamiliar territory. There is a limit to the number of roles you can play, and perhaps I had stepped over that limit. But I believe I also … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Length: 40 min. Last week I gave a presentation to BYU Idaho students entitled 7 Steps to Getting a Job in Technical Writing. This is a recording of my presentation. You may remember a lengthy post I wrote on this same subject, 7 steps to getting a job in technical writing, as well. Although getting a … more »