If I Can Do Technical Writing, Anyone Can Do It! Here is Why…

If I Can Do Technical Writing, Anyone Can Do It! Here is Why…

Yesterday I heard back from a reader who is a professional English editor.

He pointed out an error that was in one of my letters.

Apparently, I signed the letter off by saying “in your service…”

“That’s wrong,” he pointed out, “it should be at-your-service.”

And he’s right in a way. (But not totally because “at your service” signifies a READINESS to serve whereas “in your service” points at a situation where someone is ACTUALLY HIRED to do a job. I consider myself as having been hired already by my readers to share technical communication practices and tutorials with them. Thus follows my “in your service” signoff. Both usages are valid, depending on the intention and context.)

So I wrote him back, thanking him for reaching out to me and taking the time to correct what he perceived to be a mistake. I was truly grateful.

I’m a writer who now and then still makes such mistakes in English.

After all, I’m not a native speaker either.

I was 13 years old when I started to learn English and it was not easy for me.

I struggled for a number of years before I could start to read and write comfortably in English.  

So that’s why believe me when I say “if I can make it, if I can earn a comfortable living as a technical writer, then ANYONE can do it!”

It’s no fake humility. It’s no false modesty. It’s the truth.

Let me repeat:

“If I can make it in technical writing, then anyone can!”

I shared this little anecdote with you in case you think your English is not good enough or if you are an ESL student still struggling with it.

Trust me, you don’t need to be a creative genius or an English-major grammar superstar to write a decent useful technical document in English.

Here I am the living proof, doing it since 1998 for Fortune 100 companies and making a good living at it. What additional proof do you need?

All the best!