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Steven Brown wrote:
>>The best reason to become a technical writer is
>>because you LOVE writing (and, of course, you're good
>>at it). Remember, we're writers first and foremost.
>>That's what we do. Everything else is secondary.
>>Period.
I must also respectfully disagree on this point. Writing is only a small percentage of what we do. I think the most important thing we do is communicate information to other people. So, I think we are teachers first and foremost. We are also students, private investigators, cheerleaders, artists and writers. (yep, I'm expecting a flame or two for that comment)
Don't get me wrong. I love this field. One reason for that love is that I get to write (because when it comes down to it, I'm a writer at heart). But I also love this field because it's closely related to teaching, another passion of mine. The body of academic knowledge surrounding technical communications is also fascinating because it encompasses diverse topics, such as psychology and cross-cultural issues. I also get to tinker with some pretty interesting, if not buggy, technology. When _I_ go to work, it's almost like play time for me because I basically really enjoy (_almost_) every aspect of what I do.
But there's always the reality check. Because if there wasn't money in technical writing, I wouldn't be doing it. Let's face it, technical writing is one of the few writing-related jobs that pays good money and promises a fairly steady income. I know a lot of newspaper reporters making just a couple bucks over minimum wage. Plus, I have family to support. So money becomes a very real question of survival. Besides, when most people think of writing, they think of fiction writing, or at least some form of creative writing that allows a person to express himself; get into contact with the inner child and so forth. Technical writing ain't that. There's no room for inner children when you're trying to teach someone what a "Redo" function is. Technical writers get the creativity and self expression that fiction writers get when the technical writers design the documents they write, not when they are producing the content.
As Keith Cronin pointed out, it's kind of hard to picture any kid thinking "I want to be a tech writer when I grow up." I didn't. I wanted to be a ranger, a cartoonist, a linguist and an anthropologist (or any combination thereof).
Bottom line: Technical writing, like any career, is a means of survival. I'm just lucky that I enjoy it.
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Sean Hower
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