The first skill a technical writer should have, of course, is writing. You should be able to write in a clear, concise manner. Technical writing is not poetry or prose. Depending on where you work, you may or may not be able to add some stylistic flair. Either way, your job is to clearly tell your audience exactly what they need to know, and everything they need to know.

The second skill you should have is knowledge of a technical subject. My emphasis has always been in the field of computers, which is probably the largest segment of the technical writing market. Your knowledge can be in many other areas, however, such as science, medicine, engineering, mechanics, or law.

No matter what your area of knowledge, you will need computer skills, especially desktop publishing skills. At minimum, you should know the Microsoft Office suite of applications, especially Microsoft Word. Beyond Office, there is Adobe FrameMaker, which is used in many technical-writing environments. Other publishing packages such as PageMaker, Quark Express, and Interleaf can also be useful. In addition, online documentation tools such as RoboHelp, Doc-to-Help and Lotus Notes are great applications to have on your resume, as are HTML and other Internet skills.

In addition, you should try to develop interviewing skills, because you will probably find yourself interviewing technical people to get the information you need for your documents. Often, they will have no idea how to tell you what you need to know, so it is up to you to figure out how to draw the information out of them.

How do I become a technical writer?

This is my most frequently asked question, and a difficult one to answer. I can only tell you how I got into it. I have spent my entire adult life (and a good deal of my youth) as a writer of some form or another. When I entered college, I became first a reporter for and eventually the editor of my college newspaper. It was exciting, interesting, and very stressful. When I chose a major in college, I finally settled on creative writing, with a minor in English. I took very few technical courses in college and I have never taken a course in technical writing.

What I did do was work with computers, constantly. I got my first computer when I was 13 years old and I have never been without one since. In high school and at the beginning of college, I took some programming classes, but only about three of them. The rest of my computer skills I acquired either at home or on the job. When I transferred from my community college to the University of Arizona, I got a job in their computer department in the ‘Courseware Library for Instructional Computing’. There, I was exposed to just about every micro platform available at the time (IBM, Apple/Macintosh, Next, Commodore) and hundreds of software programs. I enjoyed it and I eventually began to teach seminars in Macintosh computing to the faculty and staff. While doing so, I wrote some short manuals and performed other various desktop publishing functions. After college, I had a series of jobs, all of them either computer, publishing, or writing related, until I eventually found myself out of work and needing a career path. I had done some technical writing as part of my past jobs, and I decided that I should dedicate my efforts towards building a career there.

Despite being broke, I managed to acquire my own copy of FrameMaker, and train myself on the package, adding that to my skills in PageMaker. I also taught myself HTML programming and learned to read C and other languages that I had not visited in many years. I sent out over 300 resumes and refused to settle for less than what I wanted. I used up all of my unemployment and dug myself deeply into debt.

Then, I received two job offers. The first one was to work as an Internet content developer for my local newspaper. It paid eight dollars an hour for 30 hours a week of work. I was willing to take it, and would have, but right as I was about to I got a call from a contract agency I had sent my resume to. Another local company was looking for a technical writer for a six-month contract. It paid $20.00 an hour, but much of that got sucked up when I opted for salary and benefits such as medical and dental insurance, holidays, sick days and vacation days. In the end, I started at $29,000 a year and after 6 months I renegotiated to $35,000. As my experience has grown, so has my pay.

What should I take in college?

As an undergraduate, I focused on creative writing and English. If I had gone to college with the goal of being a technical writer, I would still have majored in English or Creative Writing, but I would have minored in a technical subject such as computers or one of the sciences. For some, engineering may be a better choice than science. Even if you are a college graduate, you should consider supplementing your education. An associates degree in computers or another technical subject will prove you have learned the basics.

For graduate studies, more and more colleges are offering Technical Writing or Professional communications degrees. I recently went back to school to get a degree in professional communications.

I’m just out of college, and I want to be a technical writer, but I have no experience, how do I get my first job?

The first technical writing job is difficult to get, especially if you were a writing major and did not major (or even minor) in a technical subject. The first thing you need to do is prove you can write. This involves creating a sample of your work, which is not easy to do without having a specific project. What many people do is try to find a short, badly written manual (There are thousands) and re-write it. The other approach is to write a manual about something you know. The key is to have proof you can do the work.

Do I need a sample?

Yes. Prospective employers often ask for a sample of your technical writing. This can be a problem because these same employers are likely to tell you that what you write for them is confidential. For this reason, I use a ‘fictionalized’ sample. It is based on a short manual I wrote for one company, but I have gone out of my way to change any company-specific information. This was not fun, but it was the best compromise I could come up with. My sample is about 15 pages long. I keep it this short because the employers often want to keep it or review it, and they are not that cheap to reproduce, especially because I have my sample vellum bound with a transparent plastic cover. I also include an explanation of what publishing package I used and what the requirements and restrictions of the project were.

What is the best way to look for a job?

The Internet is a great way to look for work, and even better if you are willing to move around. I especially recommend indeed.com, which searches severl employment sites at once. I also try to hit all the local technical employment agencies. The easy way to do this is check the Sunday paper of the town you are interested in and look in the computer or technical employment sections. Look for agencies advertising several jobs and get either their fax numbers or e-mail addresses. They do not have to be advertising technical writing jobs. If they place technical jobs, then it is worth the time to get your resume and cover letter to them.

There has also been a growth in resume distribution services. These companies claim to send your resume to thousands of recruiters. I haven’t tried this approach, but if you are interested try: EmailMyResume.com, ResumeZapper.com, and ResumeXposure.com.

What should my resume look like?

Emphasize your technical skills. If you know a software package or computer platform or if you have a scientific background, make sure you supply details. I am a strong believer that good writing skills are far more important than knowledge of a specific subject or program, but the reality out there is that if you know the programs or subjects they’re looking for, then you have the distinct edge in getting the job. Writing skill is far down the list of what they take into account. I have gotten two jobs without even providing a sample of my writing. If you would like to have a professional work on your resume, try: Employment911.com or A and A Resume.

What kind of cover letter should I use?

If you are contacting an agent and not responding to a specific job request, then simply indicate a few basics about yourself. indicate you consider to be your strongest and most relevant skills. Don’t make it long and don’t go out of your way to provide details. If they want to know more, they will ask. Keep it short and simple.

On the other hand, if you are responding to a specific job description, especially if you are responding directly to the employer, then a careful cover letter should be written. Analyze the job description, and in your cover letter state specifically how you qualify for as much of that description as possible. Make them believe that you are exactly what they are looking for. Paraphrase their description as much as possible.

What should I ask for in negotiations?

Negotiations are a difficult process. Most agencies work on the “What pay range are you looking for?” system. This is a tricky system, but one that can be beaten. The key is to ask for more than you expect to get. Do this every time, and by at lease five dollars an hour. I give this advice for an important reason. If you are dealing with an agency and you under-price yourself, you are at their mercy. They will either give you what you ask for, or whatever the minimum in their range is. That is it. End of story.

However, if you ask for more than what their range is, they will then proceed to tell you what the range is. Remember, you aren’t dealing with the employer, you are dealing with the agent, and they know what the job will be bid at. When they tell you your rate is too high, ask what the range is and tell them that whatever the high number is will be good enough. It is possible to price yourself out of a job, but frankly, I’m willing to accept that risk. If you aren’t, then follow your own instincts.

If you are dealing directly with an employer, negotiations are more difficult. The key here is to wait until they are ready to extend an offer. If they ask early on what you want, tell them that you will be happy to listen to whatever their offer is, once they have one to make. If they get adamant about it, then you’ll have to name your figure and take your chances. Again, I recommend starting on the high side, but it depends on your instincts and whether you are willing to risk not getting the job in order to get what you want. I have been lucky enough to be pursued by more than one company at a time, and I have been willing to play the two off each other in order to get what I wanted. There is also a big advantage to already having a job when you look for your next job. You have the luxury of saying no.

The one most annoying question an employer can ask me is my past salary history. This has happened a few times, and I have refused to tell them on some occasions and I have told them on others. In both situations, I never got the job, so I can’t say which practice works best. I always take the question as a bad sign, however. Any company interested in this is not likely to treat their employees well, in my opinion.

What is a good technical writing rate?

There is, of course, no clear-cut answer to this. Rates vary according to geography, experience, benefits, and the current job market. As I write this, the market has been slow for a three years but is now starting to pick up. There are still more writers than jobs, but the numbers are evening out.

If money is a prime concern, then you need to be in a major market. I am currently working in Phoenix. Phoenix is a good market because there are several major technology firms (Motorola, Intel, AT&T, American Express, etc.) and there are quite a few smaller companies that employ technical writers. California in general and the San Francisco Bay area (also known as Silicon Valley) specifically are the largest markets, though they have also been the hardest hit by the slowdown in the technical industries. Dallas, Denver, New York, Atlanta, North Carolina and Washington State are also good markets. In those places, contract technical writers commonly make from $15-60 an hour. Salaried employment ranges from $30,000-90,000 a year. There have been more jobs in the lower part of this range during the slump, but compensation is also picking up.

Is it better to take a permanent job or a contract?

This depends on the job, of course. I originally chose to go the contract route because I knew that with a couple more years of experience under my belt, I would be able to command much more money than I would when I began, far more than I would be able to count on through raises. I also had no family to support, so I had a certain freedom to move around and to take risks. I did take a permanent position once, but permanence in this industry is an illusion. I have continued to take contract work and I prefer it.

If you do contract, you will find that you are generally treated differently from regular employees. This will vary widely from company to company, but you may or may not find yourself with a little less respect and acceptance, especially as a technical writer. You are disposable. Also, you will be expected to do your own training. Rarely will companies finance training for contractors.

On the up side, you generally attend fewer meetings and deal with less company politics. Also, I have always tried to get my training on the job. Moving from company to company has given me the opportunity to learn a variety of applications that I would be ignorant of if I had only been at a single company all this time.

To me the key difference between contracting and regular employment is one of attitude toward the company. When I am contracting I consider the company to be a client. I probably work harder to give them what they want, but I have less personal interest in the outcome. Even if I feel the project is flawed, I do what they ask because they are a client and that is my responsibility to them. As an employee, I get much more caught up in the reasons for projects. I am more likely to object to a course of action I don’t feel helps me or the company because I feel it is our mutual responsibility to succeed. I am more invested in the outcome and less concerned with pleasing the company. This may be different for other people, but I think it accurately reflects my past attitudes.

Why are there more contract/consultant jobs then there are permanent jobs?

The hard fact is that most companies do not value technical writing. They bring in writers to fill a specific need, often because they have been required to provide documentation for a project. Many companies bring writers in at the end of a project to document what has already been created rather than include writers in the full product cycle.

Why don’t more companies value technical writing?

Much more emphasis is put on the programming side of products than on usability and documentation because these are viewed as secondary issues. I strongly feel this has helped lead the technical industry into its current down cycle.

Technical writers are viewed as a luxury. As valuable as I feel my skills are, and can be to a company, the company can still function without me. If the programs or systems are undocumented, or if they are poorly documented by programmers or analysts, it will not damage the company as obviously as if the program fails to get developed. I happen to feel that a company that spends money on good technical writers will get a very high return for its investment, in more satisfied customers, smoother processes and greater institutional memory. I believe that dollar-wise this can make money for the company, but those are categories that are difficult to measure and often hard for management to comprehend.

Also, some companies do not understand what a technical writer does. Some consider writers to be glorified secretaries, and do such things as give them notes to type up or even have them take minutes at meetings. Part of the problem is that secretaries and administrative assistants have also become a thinning breed, and management (not the upper management, who have secretaries, but the lower management and team members) are desperate for anyone who can make a document look good. I once found myself at a company that constantly asked me to attend meetings simply to record the minutes. I comforted myself with the fact that I was paid $36 an hour to do it, but I also started looking for my next job,

What types of documents do technical writers create?

The range of writing a technical writer performs varies widely. Much is dependent on the technical specialty of the writer and of the needs of the company. You may find yourself a part of one large project, or overseeing dozens of smaller projects. You might write manuals, articles, proposals, white papers, product descriptions or any of a hundred other types of documents.

My specialty is writing manuals, especially user manuals and programmer manuals for specific software applications. This is the technical writing I enjoy most, because for me it involves solving problems and figuring out puzzles. To write a user manual, I need to think like the people using the program and try to tell them what they need to know, rather than what I would need to know or what the programmer would need to know. For me, this is a lot of fun and very fulfilling.

There are dozens of different types of writing that come under the banner of technical writing, however. Many people document processes. Processes can be just about any system by which something gets done. For example, in order for a company to generate a payroll, certain actions must be taken, such as logging hours and generating checks. All of those steps are part of a process, and intelligent companies document those processes so that, if an employee leaves or a system goes down, they have something to consult in order to get themselves on track. One name for this type of document is SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).

Another type of documentation is SLA (Service Level Agreement). The SLA describes exactly what a provider (company or department) will do for a customer (another company, another department, or an individual). These can be highly technical documents or busywork, depending on the service and the company.

Proposals, often written in response to an RFP (Request For Proposal) document are much like SLAs. They describe what work will be done, but they require more writing finesse because they are also pitching the service. The company is proposing to sell a service. I have written several proposals, and depending on the request and the company, they can be quite interesting or more busywork.

These are just a few examples of the types of work technical writers perform.

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One of the great things about blogging is that, for the most part, there is little lead time. You write something and then you publish it. If you’re lucky, you get feedback and if it is particularly good you get repeat visitors. You might write ahead, gathering several days or even weeks worth of posts in advance, but for the most part you are writing as you go.

In the world of technical writing, you are often assigned to projects that last for months or even years, and in many cases the material you write today may not be read for a long time. Occasionally, it won’t get read at all, at least not by the people you intended it for. This has been a fairly regular occurrence in my career. My first major project lasted a year. At the end of that year, the company was part of a merger and moved to the other company’s software platform, negating all of my work.

Later on in my career, I documented what was expected to be a major product for a very large hardware/software company.  Because of the lead time for localization, I had to complete the documentation two months before the product was to be released. I had just finished up and sent off my work to the translators when word came down that the project was being scrapped due to a poor business case. Poor business case was code for, “our competitors decided to include this tool for free in their new operating system”.

My most recent bout of deadprojectitis hasn’t been quite as severe. The product I have been working on for the past two years was released and most of my documentation is at least available to customers. Nonetheless, the product is on its way out. It won’t be gone today or tomorrow, but it is being replaced by something newer and shinier and almost certainly better. The change came suddenly. Just a month ago, it looked like the product would be getting a major overhaul that would have me up to my armpits in documentation for the next six months, but things change.

In all of these cases, far more than my own efforts were negated. There were programmers, engineers, project managers, product managers, business analysts and a host of other people who had their efforts negated. These things happen. Companies change direction, market forces change people’s needs, competitors beat you. This is the world of business and it is frustrating. In some cases people don’t just see their hard work pushed aside, they actually lose their jobs. There isn’t always another project waiting around the corner. These are the realities of the business world. In the current economy, it is something you’ll see more and more of. Companies will be cutting expenses, and often that comes in the area of new development, or the elimination of existing products.

There is no magic solution to this problem. It helps if you can be assigned to more than one project, so that you aren’t defined by a single product, but those choices aren’t always your to make. This is the business world. When things do wrong you pick yourself back up, dust yourself off and get back in the game.

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• Outsourcing means contracting with another company to provide a service that would otherwise be performed by an employee. This is often done for projects because they require a temporary increase in resources.
• Offshoring means relocating a job (either by outsourcing or through your own company) to a foreign country because of costs of other considerations.
• When you get a new job, there is always paperwork involved whether you are a regular employee or a contractor.
• The fax machine remains the dominant source of communication for signed forms.
• Typical paperwork includes contracts, confidentiality/non-disclosure agreements, direct deposit forms, right-to-work and tax information.

Outsourced, not Offshored

The term outsourcing gets misinterpreted pretty often these days. Most people, when they think about outsourcing, think of some guy in a foreign country who answers the phone when you call customer support. While that person may or may not be outsourced labor, the better term for sending a job to another country is offshoring. Outsourcing simply means that a company contracts with another company to provide a service that would otherwise be performed by an employee.

Outsourcing is a very common practice that often takes place locally. Companies outsource using temporary employment agencies, consulting agencies or simply companies that specialize in a service. They might outsource such things as their advertising and marketing, public relations, custodial services or their technical support. Individuals also outsource. They outsource when they hire people to do such things as their taxes, their laundry, their housekeeping or their landscaping.

In my case, when I first went to work as a contract technical writer, I was providing an outsourced service. I was working for a company in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. That was the company that signed my checks and provided my benefits. They were also the company I would go to if I had an employment related problem or grievance.

I was working at a company in Tucson, Arizona. That was the company that required my services and the company that gave me most of my marching orders. They told me what they needed and they had the right to review my job performance and even end my contract if they were dissatisfied. I was essentially working for two companies. This created a lot of paperwork and resulted in a lot of faxing.

A Flood of Faxes

It started before I even showed up for my first day of work. The first thing that WTW, the company that paid me, faxed me was my contract. I was a contractor after all. The contract gave the details of my pay (both the amount and frequency), my rights (a short list), and their rights (a long list). I think they also slipped in a couple of chapters from On the Road translated into pig-Latin. With the low readability of a fax it is hard to tell sometimes.

The paperwork amounted to over twenty pages of small type and they had to fax every one of those pages to me. I then had to sign on the long blank lines, initial the short blank lines and fax it back to them. Pages got lost in the transition so they would then fax the paperwork back to me again. I objected to the wording of one portion, so they had to rewrite it and refax it again. In addition to the contract, I had to sign and fax non-disclosure / confidentiality agreements, tax forms, right-to-work forms, direct deposit forms and copies of my identification. All of this took the better part of a day.

Fax machines are pretty ancient technology at this point. These days, email and PDF forms have made the paperwork process a bit easier. In the end though, signed forms still have to be faxed or at least scanned into a computer and emailed. It is a tedious but necessary process.

The Weekly Fax Regimen

I wish I could say that that was the end of my faxing, but it was just the beginning. The process continued once I got to work. As a contract employee I had to have my hours reviewed and signed by a manager (or at least a real employee) and then I had to fax that form to WTW every week. If I didn’t fax in the form, I didn’t get paid.

All of that paperwork and faxing delayed the start of my contract for three days. This distressed the company that requested me because they were in an incredible hurry to get me working. There was a lot of documentation to be done and they were way behind. It was vital that I get started right away. I needed to hit the ground running. At least, that’s what they said…

Further Reading

• Outsourcing vs. Offshoring: What’s the difference? by EC EDI: The terms are not identical.
• Document Hack (A Technical Writer’s Journal): Interview & Negotiation by John Hewitt: A discussion of another interview and hiring session.
• Internet Fax Service List by Kevin Savetz: If you don’t want to use a clunky fax machine, these online services will also send and receive faxes for you.

Discussion Questions

• Do you trust yourself to review a twenty page employment contract on your own?
• Can you think of any services that your have outsourced?
• Have you ever lost a job to outsourcing or offshoring?
• When is the last time you had to fax a document?

Next Time

I begin my life as a newbie technical writer and find that the world isn’t quite what I expected.

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• In the world of contracting, the entire hiring process can take place over the phone
• Knowing the right tool (even a little) can get you the job
• Per diem is a fixed daily allowance for meals and/or lodging
• Beach time is payment for staying with a company but not actually going to work until they find more work for you
• Benefits such as health insurance and paid time off (PTO) come at a cost, and sometimes they are negotiable
• Recruiters always make the job sound great

The Road Not Taken

The first phone call I received that week wasn’t for a technical writing job. It was for a web development job at the local newspaper. The job made sense. I had some newspaper experience and I knew HTML. They wanted somebody who could convert their articles into HTML using a conversion program that would probably require a few on-the-fly tweaks. They brought me in for a job interview and it went well. I met the editor in charge of the online edition and we liked each other instantly. He was a nerd, just like me. We prattled on about HTML for far longer than anyone should.

The downside was the pay. The job would be part-time (25 hours a week) and pay about twelve dollars an hour. That would be barely enough money to skirt bankruptcy, much less get ahead. Still, the job seemed well-suited to my skills and the journalist in me liked the idea of working for the largest daily newspaper in town. The editor promised to call me the next day and let me know whether or not I got the job.

A Bunch of Calls in a Row

I was still dressed in my suit when I got home and the phone rang. I was hoping it was the editor, calling me early, but it was another gig entirely. The company calling was Wesson, Taylor, Wells & Associates. They were a contracting agency out of North Carolina that specialized in placing programmers in the health care industry. They wanted to know if I could interview for a technical writing job that day. I still had my suit on, so I said sure, just tell me where to go. You don’t have to go anywhere, the man said, I’m going to have the head programmer call you in about ten minutes. Eight minutes later, I was talking to the head programmer.

Once again, the interview went well. The programmer wanted to know if I knew anything about Speedware. I answered honestly that I had never heard of it. How about Cobol? Sure, I told him. I knew a little about Cobol. It was a structured language used for building reports and such. Well, it turned out that Speedware was a lot like Cobol, a programming language I knew “a little” about. He asked if I could read Cobol. I told him I had programmed in Basic, Fortran and Assembly language. Reading code didn’t frighten me. Either my answers were good or they were desperate, because the next thing I knew I had an offer.

All the Work I Could Handle

Actually, I had two offers. While I was on the phone with the head programmer, the newspaper editor called (a day early) to offer me the web job. The recruiter for WTW simply had more to offer though. He could either pay me $20 an hour without benefits or $29,000 a year salary with benefits (paid medical, holidays, paid time off). If I took the $29,000 I would be considered a regular employee of WTW with a permanent job, even though I would be contracting for a local health insurance company. When this gig ended, he explained, they would find me another. It might not be in the same city, but if I moved I would get per diem, which is a daily (tax free) allowance to cover living expenses. In the meantime, if they hadn’t landed me a gig, I would be paid beach time. Beach time means that you keep getting paid even though you aren’t currently working on a contract. You could go to the beach if you wanted. He told me WTW had plenty of work to offer, and that I would probably be working steadily for years.

I took the full-time gig, and using the power of the other offer (without revealing the pay) I eventually negotiated the salary up to $35,000 with benefits. In addition, because I told him I might take the newspaper job as well (it would be nights) he offered to pay me to redesign the WTW web site, writing new web copy and creating a new visual look. Suddenly, I had all the work I could handle. I also had to fire up the fax machine…

Further Reading

• Evaluating a Job Offer by the US Department of Labor: Advice on researching a job or a company.
• Employee benefits by Wikipedia: A rundown of the general benefits that might be available for a job.
• How to Find Technical Writing Jobs by John Hewitt: My step-by-step guide to the process.

Questions

• Is money the primary consideration in a job search?
• If one job paid significantly less than another, what other factors might lead you to take the lower-paying job?
• What experiences have you had with job recruiters?

Next Time

I’ll discuss some of the things that happen after you take the job but before you actually start the job.

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I’d like all of you writers who consider yourselves too creative for technical writing to rethink your opinion. If you are creative, if you can entertain readers, if you like technology (even a little) and, above all, if you enjoy learning new things, then you’re the kind of writer that should be explaining our technical world to the people living in it.

How Technical Do You Have To Be To Be a Technical Writer?

The fact is, while there is a lot of technical writing that should be written by serious technologists, if not full engineers, that explain things to other technologists and engineers, the vast majority of writing about technology is written for and read by the nontechnical consumer audience.

How much of a technical background you need depends on what you write about. If you’re explaining APIs to programmers, then you need a programming background. If you’re explaining the theory of operation of a nuclear power plant to nuclear engineers, you need a physics background.

But if you’re explaining how to use a TV, VCR, home computer, or any of a million other hardware and software products created for the consumer market, you need a human background. And that’s what many writers who don’t normally consider writing about technology specialize in.

In fact, for many subjects and products, it’s an advantage for the writer to come to the project knowing very little. That way, the discovery process, complete with mistakes and false trails, is fresh in the mind, and you’ll know the pitfalls that your reader will face.

What Skills Do You Really Need?

To be a successful tech writer today, you do have to be able to:

• Learn: figure out what the darn thing is, what it does and how to use it.
• Explain: explain what you learned to people who don’t know it yet, who don’t figure things out as easily as you do or who don’t really enjoy learning new things.
• Write well: this is basic, and standard for all types of writing.
• Entertain: think back to your school days. Which teachers did you learn the most from? For me, it was the teachers that had a sense of humor and made learning fun and exciting.
  And the hardest of all:
• Finish: meet your deadlines with high quality work.

Technology Is Mass Market

As little as 15 years ago, technology was something that only engineers, scientists and propellerheads cared about. Sure, there were hi-fi enthusiasts, and there were those hobbyists who played with electronics and short-wave radios in the basement or garage, but these people, while tolerated, were a minority. They were generally considered strange, and were rarely invited to parties.

But today, everything is different. Technology is everywhere. Cell phones, VCRs, CDs, DVDs, computers and the Internet have invaded both home and workplace. Using technology is no longer a choice. It’s a fact of personal and professional life.

Technology Is Entertainment

People buy VCRs, camcorders, computers (at least partially) and software (at least partially) for entertainment. Learning how to use them should be entertaining as well. Why should they feel like they’re back in school with a boring, confusing, unclear teacher to learn how to have fun?

Learning is Necessary, But It Can Be Fun

Think back on your teachers who were boring and unclear. How much did you remember from their classes? Now think back on the few teachers who entertained and inspired you, who made you laugh now and then, whose classes were fun. As long as you have to learn, which teacher would you rather learn from? If you are teaching through your technical writing, which teacher would you rather be remembered as?

Rewards

Tech writing and technical communications in general is a growing field — growing in size and in prestige. With this growth comes more opportunities to be paid for writing, and pay rates are increasing, especially for those with a proven track record.

Today, the growth of the Internet and the software industry (business, entertainment, multimedia, etc.), and the ever-increasing need for more text and graphics, has created a need for writers and artists “well-paid writers and artists” like never before in the history of civilization. Today is your best opportunity to make a living as an artist, whether you work with words or images.

Beyond the financial aspects, there are other, less-tangible rewards from tech writing. Knowing that your work (your writing) helps other people to understand new things is rewarding in itself. And knowing that you make some people’s lives a little easier, even a little better, is something to be proud of.

With the right attitude and understanding, tech writing can give you the same personal and spiritual rewards as teaching (but with flexible hours and higher pay).

Summary

No matter what you have heard, what you have read, what you have believed, tech writing is not just for geeks any more. More and more (but far from all) companies are realizing the importance of documentation, and are changing their attitudes about creativity and humor.

So, try some tech writing. Learn something new and explain it to someone who needs help. Write so your reader will enjoy reading it. And above all, write things you enjoy writing.

Copyright 2000, Michael Bremer

About the author: Michael Bremer is the author of two books for writers: UnTechnical Writing: How to Write About Technical Subjects and Products So Anyone Can Understand, and The User Manual Manual: How to Research, Write, Test, Edit and Produce a Software Manual. He is also the managing editor of a new series of books for computer beginners: Advice From the Neighborhood Nerd. You’re not a dummy. You’re not an idiot. All you need is a little advice from the Neighborhood Nerd. For more information, see www.untechnicalpress.com.

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Adobe FrameMaker is the industry standard for writing book-length technical documentation. It is a powerful program capable of creating books of well over a thousand pages. The learning curve for the program is significant. Adobe FrameMaker is a much different animal than Microsoft Word and other word processors.

It uses, not surprisingly, a frame system (pre-designed pages that text flows into) for creating pages. The user designs frames to apply to pages. Each frame can contain a combination of text and graphics. Those frames either operate as separate and distinct units or flow from page to page. Using these frames, the user sets up master pages and reference pages. These pages allow the user to create a standardized, but still very malleable, series of pages. The user can design a page to implement at the beginning of a chapter, for example, or design a page specifically for tables, graphs, or other graphics. Creating templates can be tedious, but once they are operational and you know the shortcuts, you can develop documents quickly.

Adobe FrameMaker versus Microsoft Word

In addition to the frames, another feature that separates Adobe FrameMaker from Word is its ability to create character formats, paragraph formats and implement variables. Microsoft Word has these capabilities, but they are much more limited than Adobe FrameMaker’s. More importantly, few Microsoft users have ever bothered to explore these higher functions and they remain quite buggy.

Adobe FrameMaker’s greatest feature is its bookmaker. The bookmaker allows you to develop different files around different functions. For example, you can have a file for the cover, for the front matter, for the table of contents, for each chapter, for the appendices, for the glossary and for the index. The bookmaker then keeps track of all these documents and makes sure they cooperate for such tasks as updating the table of contents and the index.

In my situation, the form of the pages was long ago set. I do not have to develop pages or frames from scratch. Unfortunately, many of the documents I will work with were written in the 1990s using Adobe FrameMaker 4. The current version of Adobe FrameMaker is 9, and many changes have occurred in the interface and the document handling. Because of that, I must subtly massage the documents to bring them into line with current standards. For example, there are some invalid fonts and minor formatting flaws that I have to look out for.

Additional Resources

• Adobe FrameMaker 9 Classroom in a Book
• Adventures with the New Technical Communication Suite from Adobe
• What’s new in FrameMaker 9

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This week brought the first round of document editing. After spending last week looking for source files and confirming that at least thirty documents only have PDF files, I spent most of this week editing those PDF files.

PDF files are not intended for heavy editing. They are resistant even to light editing. In fact, one reason the company brought in a new contractor (me) was that none of the current staff were willing to attempt it. The rumor I have heard is that the contractor I replaced became “fed up” and he quit rather than take this assignment — good for him and better for me. I need the work and I do not mind the job.

Using Adobe Acrobat

As you probably know, you create PDF files using a program called Adobe Acrobat. There are some freeware translators out there that will turn a Word (or other) file into a PDF file, but Acrobat is the official program and it can turn just about any document into a PDF.

Using Acrobat, you can make minor edits to a PDF file, but Acrobat documents are very sensitive. Typing a single character can throw several lines off, destroy tables and cause all sort of other troubles. Alternately, it can be relatively uneventful and painless. You will not know until you type in that character.

Another problem with PDF files are embedded fonts. Because PDF files are meant to be read across platforms (Windows/Mac/Unix), many document publishers choose to embed particular fonts in order to ensure they get the desired look for their document. This means that the PDF file itself contains all the font information necessary to display and print that font, whether the viewer’s computer is equipped with that font or not. Normally, embedding fonts is a good idea, but it can make editing those documents (something you would normally never bother to do) complicated.

An important aspect of embedded fonts is that your computer will use the embedded font even if you have the identical font on your own computer. This means that, when editing, Acrobat may refuse to change or format a character because it uses an embedded font. You can work around these but the solutions are slow and tedious.

Using Adobe Illustrator to Edit PDF Files

One lesser-known solution to many of these problems is to use Adobe Illustrator to edit PDF files. Illustrator gives you much greater control over PDF pages and text formats. Illustrator has the ability to show individual blocks of text, which makes it clearer what you will change by typing something in. In Acrobat, you can only discover how much text is in a unit through trial and error. In addition, with Illustrator you can select a block of text and drag it to where you want it on the page (try doing that in Acrobat!).

The downside of Illustrator is that you can only load and edit one page of a PDF document at a time. Illustrator can also run into problems with embedded fonts. Its solution, however, is different from Acrobat’s response. Illustrator will replace an embedded font with a similar font. Unfortunately, the process tends to go smoothly only for letters and numbers. It goes less smoothly for punctuation marks, and very badly for special characters. Technical documents (and these documents in particular) have many special characters. I must frequently replace dozens of characters before I ever get to make the intended editorial changes to the documents. As I go through this process, I remind myself that the company pays me by the hour.

The changes, as I have indicated before, are minor. The company refined its manufacturing process and eliminated an outdated element across a wide platform of products. Due to the change, they have redefined package codes for those products. Because these are legacy documents, mostly dating 1994 to 1996, the products themselves are near the end of their lifecycle. Instead of inserting the new codes, I am changing the codes to a variable “x” so that (they hope) no future changes will need to be made. Some documents merely need a graphic (and the copyright info) updated and others require many small changes. I must, however, review each document must in detail to find these instances. The instances cannot be tracked solely through searches because many of the codes reside in graphics.

Technical Writing Jobs

This is not a job most technical writing books describe, but it is a common technical writing job. Not every job is about documenting new products or telling people how to accomplish things. Much of the work involves datasheets, specifications and reference guides. This is dull work even when you are creating the documents, and duller when you are merely updating them. This is also the sort of work that proves it is not always your writing skills that get you a job ? often it is your tools skills. Because I know how to use Acrobat, Illustrator and FrameMaker, I was a solid candidate for this job. Many of the jobs I have gotten came to me because I knew a certain set of development tools. Below is a core set of development tools every technical writer working today should know.

Adobe

• FrameMaker
• Acrobat
• Illustrator
• PhotoShop

Macromedia

• DreamWeaver
• Fireworks
• RoboHelp

Microsoft

• Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access)
• FrontPage
• Visio
• Project

Additional Resources

• Technical Writing 101: A Real-World Guide to Planning and Writing Technical Content
• What We Learn from Help Authoring Tool Surveys
• Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2

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Rule number one for a contractor is to never panic about what happens your first day. First days are naturally chaotic, and often companies are not fully prepared for you. Because contractors are usually brought in to solve a particular problem, the people are anxious to get you started, but companies, especially large ones, are not geared for quick action.

My first day starts at 5:45 in the morning. This is when I arrive to begin NCO (New Contractor Orientation). Most companies I’ve worked for don’t have anything like this, but this company is obsessed with safety. Every contractor who starts with the company must sit through at least the first part of the safety lectures and videos. Because I am working in an office and I do not work with hazardous chemicals (Except white-out and toner) I only have to attend until 10:00. Factory workers and clean room workers attend afternoon sessions as well.

The instructor for these safety lessons is a former naval officer who taught helicopter pilots how to survive a dunking, which is when a helicopter flips over upside-down into the ocean or other deep water. He speaks in the loud, staccato bursts you would associate with a drill sergeant, but is a nice guy who keeps the class moving. Because the company I’m working for does use many dangerous chemicals in its manufacturing process, there are many things even an office worker should know. Also, there is a lecture about harassment, sexual and otherwise. Over the course of the orientation, they process my paperwork and by the time I leave there I have a shiny new badge that will give me all the building access I need to do my job.

Technical Writing Orientation

After orientation I drive to the corporation’s other campus, where my daily job will be. It’s a huge campus with about ten big buildings. The building I work in has its own convenience store and cafeteria. One of the people I interviewed with comes down to meet me and gives me a short tour before heading to my cubicle. We go by the supply room and I pick up a notepad and a couple pens. After that, I write down the name and job function of everyone I meet. I have never been good with remembering names off the top of my head, and this gives me a reference that I can look back on later.

The first problem to emerge is the most typical. My computer is not ready yet and neither is my cubicle. They set me up at a temporary computer, but it doesn’t have the required software and nobody seems to have administration rights to the computer so we can’t install any new software either. There are about four key pieces of software I need to do my job, and the computer only has one of them. The problem is compounded because one of my bosses will be out of town all next week, and the other will only be in town on Monday and Friday.

While they scramble to solve the computer problem, I spend several hours looking over printouts of what I should be accessing online. I also read the company technical authoring guide; it goes over document formats, common product technical terms and includes a brief style guide. Many companies/departments don’t have one of these, so I consider is a good sign that this one does.

As the day progresses, I get moved to a small computer lab, where I can at least access the documents I need to read. My bosses also manage to procure for me the glossy marketing guides that have been produced for the products. One of the bosses immediately finds a technical flaw in their documents and brings it back to them.

Technical Writing Glitches

As the day winds down, my bosses figure out a basic solution to my computer problems that will, they hope, be put into place on Monday. Towards the end of the day I have one of my bosses sign my time sheet (Even though it was my first day, it was still a Friday) and I faxed it in to my contracting agency. Ten hours after I walked into the safety meeting I got to go home.

Overall it was a pretty typical first day. There will always be initial confusion, both for you and the company, and it is a good idea to take everything in stride. Just make sure you know four things by the end of the day: who your boss is, how to get in and out of the building, where the bathrooms are, and what the dress code is. If another week passes before they can get most of your problems fixed, then you can start to panic.

Additional Information

• Technical Writing Contract
• Technical Writer Hourly Rates and Salaries
• Hiring Contract Technical Writers

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My face-to-face interview with the company was similar to my phone interview. So similar, in fact that more than once I found myself answering the same questions I had answered over the phone. They did throw a couple curve balls at me, however. The strangest question I was asked was, “If we called your references, what would they say about you?” I was unprepared for this one, and I ended up talking more about my references than about what they would say about me.

My basic statement, however, was one that I have used before. “Once I take on a project, I am very committed to it. I will fight for a project, often to the consternation of those around me.” This isn’t the most positive thing I can say about myself, but I don’t like to walk into an interview and give people a false impression either. I discussed how I handle situations. I told them I’ve camped in people’s cubicles to make them give me the information I need and I’ve gone to managers when I felt people weren’t cooperating. I told them that if they are looking for someone who is always tactful and compliant, I may not be right for their project.

Apparently they weren’t too scared off by my answers. They gave me two “take-home” tests (I could have done them there) to prove I knew what I was doing. The first was a general test of FrameMaker skills, and the second was an editing test. I found both tests to be pretty easy and I emailed the tests back the next morning. Less than an hour after I sent them the tests, I got a call telling me I was hired.

Technical Writing Contract Negotiation

I had already agreed on a rate for this job ($25 an hour) and so I was surprised when my recruiter called and said she wasn’t able to get me that rate. Just as I was about to panic, she revealed that they were actually going to pay me $30 an hour. Why did they raise it? I haven’t a clue. They had me at $25.

There were some contract negotiations, however. Most of the contract was fine except for clause 14:

Failure of the employee to report for work at the date, time and location above specified shall constitute a breach of this contract and the employee shall be SUBJECT TO LIQUIDATED DAMAGES IN THE SUM OF $5,000.00, payable to ____.

The clause is not as unreasonable as it seems at first. Once a consulting company commits to a contract, they assume a financial responsibility for that person showing up to work but there was no way I would agree to the contract unless the clause itself referred to a specific date and time when I was to show up. I “discussed” this with them over a series of phone calls that went all the way to the president of the consulting company and I finally got my way.

After that was settled, I signed the contract, a non-disclosure form, a criminal background check release, and direct deposit forms. Because the consulting firm is in Dallas, All of this had to be done long distance. There’s a good chance I will never meet my recruiter or account manager in person. This did create a problem at one point, when one of my faxed contract pages went missing and I had to go through my papers and fax the page again.

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