Moving into Technical Writing -- A DICE Article and More Links
How to break into technical writing is one of the most common questions readers ask. (If you wrote a book entirely on this subject, I'm sure you'd sell regular copies.) Recently a journalist interviewed me and others (Jack Molisani, Mike Hughes, and Andrea Ames) on this topic. He published his article, called Use Your IT Experience to Move into Technical Writing, in DICE.
I have only a small quote at the end. In one of my responses about tools, I must have mumbled Camtasia in a way that sounded like Fantasia. (But I admit the latter sounds like a more fun tool to use.)
The article includes excellent research and information for breaking into technical writing. For those looking to break into technical writing, I also have an entire section on my blog dedicated to this topic. Breaking into Technical Writing (as a Student or Transitioning from Another Career) lists more than a dozen links with information on how to transition into technical writing. If you have more to add to my list, please send me them.
As a side note, the DICE writer who interviewed me is interested in moving into technical writing himself. So if you know of a company near San Jose, California looking to hire a new technical writer with excellent writing skills, let me know and I'll put you in contact with him.
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About Tom Johnson
I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, agent skills, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my AI courses for more on the latest in AI and tech comm. If you're looking for info about documenting APIs, see my API documentation course.
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Finally, I want to note a couple of things. I usually write the first drafts of my posts myself and then use AI to improve accuracy, clarity, and detail in places, so my writing is a mix of human and AI. (Hopefully that's not too off-putting.) Also, the opinions I express on my blog are my own perspectives, not those of my employer.