2 Technical Writing Topics

As I was trolling through the Internet I was surprised to come across these income figures for technical writers (see the slide show). This goes to show that, recession or not, tech writers continue to make excellent income with two conditions: 1) They should be working in the hi-tech industry. And 2) They should have seniority. But even the average incomes are not that bad in a time period when finding jobs — let along finding good paying jobs — can sometimes be a challenge.

Supporting this observation, is a brief report I heard on NPR: Yes, the overall unemployment rate in the US is still too high but did you know that the rate is under 5% for those with undergraduate and/or graduate degrees? Since most tech writers have college education, that partially explains why tech writers still have a good chance (in hi-tech sector) to find jobs and get paid adequately.

A second topic I’d like to bring to your attention today is a marvelous book I stumbled upon about training: Telling Ain’t Training. If you’d like to get more insight into the “learning and customer center”training and documentation, I highly recommend you read this volume cover to cover. You’ll be enriched by the experience and you’ll become a much better technical communicator because after all training and instructing is what we do all they long, isn’t it? We just call it “documentation.” I think other than that, what we are doing as “writers” and what “they” are doing as professional trainers overlap significantly. We have a lot to learn from one another. This book charts a great path for that convergence.