Last night, I participated in a professional panel of technical communicators for the Utah State University STC student chapter. The panelists had all graduated within the last five years from the USU technical writing program, which I think was helpful for the students. We had graduated with the intent of going into the tech comm field instead of coming into the field by accident from other fields, as have many technical communicators.

I came away from the event—an hour and a half of us talking about ourselves and giving advice—thinking that maybe we didn’t do the students justice in one particular area: how technical communication can be interesting and engaging. So I’d like to address you students and cover this.

Because a number of technical communicators also enjoy creative writing, we told the students to suppress their creative writing tendencies both in their deliverables and in collaborating with coworkers of other cultures. Communicate with simple, direct sentences, or you risk confusion. For example, when I started my job as an intern, I tended to use semicolons. The business analyst who reviewed my work knew some things about technical communication, and he told me to not use them. I realized he was right: They’re more of a literary device and don’t belong in straightforward communications. (You may remember my telling that story.)

This isn’t to say that technical writing has no creative aspects. So I hope we didn’t give you the idea that technical communication is boring and dull. If you find that it is, I suggest you find ways to liven it up.

I find tech comm engaging when certain things are happening:

  • I have the freedom to assess a project and make recommendations about what the documentation needs are.
  • I spend time interacting with other team members, SMEs, and stakeholders to obtain information.
  • I use CSS or other layout and styling techniques to add some visual interest to what I write.
  • I produce a variety of deliverables, from quick reference guides to tutorials.

Something that always adds to the interest of something is the challenge. What’s the challenge in tech comm? The ever-present questions of “What’s the best way to present this information? What information does the user need right here?” The challenge to produce the perfect documentation is always there and is part of what drives me. Of course, there are other challenges, but this is the principal one for me.

You can always keep your creative juices flowing by having a blog or doing creative writing on the side (for instance, I post short stories called the Gryphon Mountain Tales on this site).

I hope that makes the picture clearer. I don’t think any of you decided against tech comm because of what any of us panelists said. If you did, we failed.

I attended a presentation at work yesterday in which the presenter said 75% of workers in a study admitted that they could significantly improve their performance at work, and a large percentage did only enough to keep from being fired. My other piece of advice to you is to always do your best work. You’ll show your value that way, and then your managers will be much less inclined to let you go when they’re looking for ways to cut costs. Look for ways to educate coworkers and managers about the impact you have in the organization.

Thanks for letting me and the other panelists talk to you last night. I hope it was helpful. Good luck in your job search!

Related posts that I referred you to last night:

Related posts (auto-generated):

  1. Preparing for the Technical Writing Profession, Part I
  2. Preparing for the Technical Writing Profession, Part II
  3. The Visual Learning Style in Tech Writing
  4. A Way to Get Technical Writing Practice
  5. Daydreamer to Tech Writer and Back Again