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 »

One of the tough paradoxes of the technical writing field is that you can’t get a job without experience, but you can’t get experience without a job. Or so it seems. A reader recently wrote to me explaining how she decided to write manuals for her existing job as an account maintenance clerk, even though the task of writing documentation wasn’t in her list of … 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 »

If you’re a college student looking to become a technical writer after you graduate, you face a formidable challenge: you can’t get a job without experience, and you can’t get experience without a job. Especially in a competitive job market, getting a job as a technical writer directly after you graduate — without a foundation of previous jobs, experience with a handful of tools, and … more »

Beginning writers trying to break into the field of technical writing face a paradox: almost all jobs require experience, but they can’t get experience without first having a job. In the past, I’ve recommended that beginning writers create documentation for any open-source project they can find, such as WordPress, Audacity, or projects on SourceForge.net. However, our organization now has about ten open source projects that … more »

A Techie Tech Writer Blog » Finding Open Source Doc Projects

K. writes, Dear Mr. Tom Johnson, I am a Post Graduate in English. Recently I am working in a leading public house as writer. How can I become a successful TECHNICAL WRITER? Please reply me as soon as possible. K. Dear K, The best thing you can do to develop your skills and ability with technical writing is to actually do some technical writing. Find … more »