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September 28th, 2008 | Posted in Technical Writing 12 Comments »
As college students contemplate careers in technical writing, they often hesitate because of negative stereotypes about the profession. As with many stereotypes, these aspects of technical writing can describe some situations for some people, but as a whole they aren’t necessarily true.
I’ve listed Ten Technical Writing Stereotypes — tell me if the stereotypes hold generally true for you or not. You can take the survey here: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/70615/stereotypes. Additionally, you can respond in the comments below this post.
1. Technical writing is boring.
Technical writing is a generally boring activity, involving repetitive, structured writing that requires the same types of sentences over and over (click this, select that, choose this, press that). You spend a good part of your day yawning, editing the same lifeless instructional material while looking out your window and yearning for something more. True or False?
2. Technical writing stifles your creativity.
Because you spend all day immersed in writing instructional text, your own sense of creativity declines. You feel fewer flashes of inspiration and generally have less creative drive and desire. You even find yourself adopting the same techniques of writing short, clear, dry, humorless sentences in your email and journal. True or False?
3. You do a lot of writing as a technical writer.
Although your day is punctuated by a meeting here and there, you spend the majority of your day in writing mode — writing how to use a particular product, or editing what you’ve written. After a full day at work, your fingerpads are often sore from so much typing! True or False?
4. You need a job in technical communication to get a job in technical communication.
Breaking into the field of technical communication is a Catch 22: You need a job in technical communication to get a job in technical communication. Sometimes a degree, certificate, or internship in technical writing can make up for a lack of job experience, but generally breaking into technical communication requires job experience in the same field, making it nearly impossible to get in. True or False?
5. Technical writers are second-class citizens in IT departments.
As a technical writer, you’re generally treated poorly in IT departments — ignored in meetings, put in your place when you speak up, avoided by subject matter experts, excluded from decision-making processes, and sometimes given demeaning secretarial tasks. True or False?
6. Technical writers feel as if they’ve sold out.
You once aspired to write a novel or go into publishing, but due to financial obstacles, you had to embrace technical writing to meet your monthly bills. You often feel as if you’re expending your talents in the wrong direction. You’ve given up on your literary publishing dreams and have resorted to manual-writing as almost your exclusive writing activity. As a writer who once turned heads with your creative prose, you now feel as if you’ve sold out. True or False?
7. You can easily support a family with other writing careers outside of technical writing.
You could pursue a variety of careers in writing to support your family in a comfortable way. Whether working as an editor in a publishing house, a journalist at a newspaper, a staff writer for a magazine, a proofreader for a journal, a writing teacher at a university or high school, you can make enough to be the sole breadwinner of your family. True or False?
8. You have to know a lot of tools to break into technical communication.
To be a competitive applicant for a technical communication job, you need to know a plethora of tools — RoboHelp, Flare, Framemaker, AuthorIt, InDesign, Visio, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Camtasia, Captivate, Word, and a handful of others. You also often have to be familiar with various technologies — HTML, XML, DITA, Javascript, CSS, RSS, Java, and C++. The tool/technical knowledge for entry can be formidable. True or False?
9. Technical writers are introverted, isolated, boring geeks.
As a technical writer, you have a generally introverted personality. You keep to yourself most of the day, don’t enjoy large social gatherings, and spend half your day practically mute. You work in your cube or designated area, typing away solemnly at your computer while others interact around you. You tend to have a lot of arcane, geeky knowledge about things no one else cares about. True or False?
10. Because IT technologies change so frequently, you have to spend large amounts of your spare time just keeping up with what’s new.
Your workday ends at 5 p.m., but since the field of IT is moving so quickly, with new sites, applications, and technologies emerging almost daily, you have to spend a good chunk of your spare time at home just keeping up. At times you can feel as if you’re drowning in new knowledge, barely keeping your head above water. You have little time for anything else. True or False?
Note: This article was originally published in the Sept 2008 (Fall) issue of the TechCraft newsletter.
Tags: boring, change, Creativity, geek, introversion, myths, second-class citizen, sellout, stereotypes, TechCraft, technical writing careers, tools
I read up to point 5 before I realized that several of the stereotypes apply to other jobs, too. Preferably jobs I don’t care to understand, such as accountant or archaeologist… But such is the nature of stereotypes, I suppose.
To rebut some points in similarly coarse terms:
- If TW is boring and stifling your creativity, either your manager or you don’t fully understand the tasks, capabilities and opportunities of the field.
- It’s not just TWs who feel 2nd class in IT departments; developers make everyone else feel 2nd class. Ask testers.
- Because TWs are such introverted, boring geeks, they are wholly unable to network. There are neither blogs and nor online communities. In fact, this post doesn’t exist. Nor does this comment.
On a more serious note: I think all these stereotypes are real. What makes the list so irritating is that some are external, others are internal. When people outside TW don’t thrust stereotypes upon us, we can still perpetuate some ourselves.
Especially knowing a lot of tools (#8) and keeping up to date on tools and methods (#10) could stand a little common sense every once in a while: I try to keep up to date with what’s out there. But I won’t learn a tool until I actually need to use it, either because it comes with the job or because it actually does something better than the tools I know. Just as not every trend-setting presentation topic is worth getting involved in. – Can we technical writers trust our best judgment to choose our areas and tools of expertise?
I just took the survey. Where will they post the results?
Ninas last blog post..Anniversary Hike with Hubster, Take 2
When do we get to see results???
I’ll post the results in a week. Right now you can see how the first 33 people answered.
I took the survey but found it hard to answer some questions. It is often assumed, and you do it here in a few questions, as writing help manuals, ie software development. Actually, it is an extremely broad field. For example, I write in the environmental field, strategic planning, and science and social science textbooks. I also do web copy for the manufacturing industry. There are compliance writers, health writers. You’ll find us in smaller corners at STC conferences, but we are there.
[...] stereotypes abound, even among people in the field. Tom Johnson recently posted about what he terms the ten technical writing stereotypes. Tom’s also set up a survey in conjunction with this post. Even if you’re not a [...]
1. Technical writing is boring.
Sometimes true, sometimes false. It depends on both the industry you work in, and what products you write for. If you write manuals for refrigerators for example, how often are there new features to document, complex things to learn and communicate, etc? On the other hand, if you document software you’re always learning something new as they are always adding a new feature, fixing a bug, or doing something you have to document. Then again, it all depends on what you consider “boring.”
2. Technical writing stifles your creativity.
False. Yes, there are only so many ways you can be creative with “click this, select that,” but that’s not all there is to technical writing. Knowing your audience, deciding what to include in your manual or help, and structuring it so somebody will actually read it takes a lot of creativity. On the other hand, if you got into this field to write long, flowery prose, you are in the wrong business.
3. You do a lot of writing as a technical writer.
False. Most writers I know (myself included), spend about 10 percent of their time actually writing. The other 90 percent is usually spent attending meetings, reviewing design documents, corporate training, attending meetings, installing software updates, attending meetings, answering emails, attending meetings…
4. You need a job in technical communication to get a job in technical communication.
True. Unless you know somebody and they get you a job, or you are a Senior and ready to take an internship, the few technical writing jobs that are available are going to go to those who have an established track record and – more often than not, experience with whatever tool that particular company uses for documentation (Frame, Word, QuarkExpress, etc.).
5. Technical writers are second-class citizens in IT departments.
True. To quote an article I read some months ago, “Zero recognition and status, and your position on the totem pole is somewhere a fraction above the test team – ‘the poor bloody infantry’ of I.T.”
No matter how much BS they give you about demanding respect, etc., at the same time every other artcle about getting information from SMEs involves bribing them with chocolates or cookies or something to get them to do their jobs. That should tell you all you need to know about how much respect a TW gets.
6. Technical writers feel as if they’ve sold out.
Sometimes true, sometimes false. Unless you’re doing your “dream job” everyone who works for a living has “sold out” on some level. However, I actually work with a woman who really loves being a Technical Writer to the point of being passionate about it.
7. You can easily support a family with other writing careers outside of technical writing.
Sometimes true, sometimes false. With 25 years in this business and a Master’s in IT, I make a good salary for what I do. I also commute an hour each way. The TW jobs in the area where I live could support a family – if you wanted to live in a trailer and drive a 1994 Chevy Cavalier. I know that software and medical writers make the most money. I’m not sure if you could even get any of the other jobs mentioned above.
8. You have to know a lot of tools to break into technical communication.
True – for the most part. From what I’ve experienced, the more tools you know, the better your chances of landing a job. Most job ads list tools in their requirements and if you don’t have them, you’re likely to be screened out of a particular job.
9. Technical writers are introverted, isolated, boring geeks.
Sometimes true, sometimes false. I know a lot of writers who fit this description. I also know a lot of writers who are gregarious, energetic, social butterflies. The description in the article is closer to most of the engineers I work with.
10. Because IT technologies change so frequently, you have to spend large amounts of your spare time just keeping up with what’s new.
Sometimes true, sometimes false. One company I worked for didn’t even have online documentation and wasn’t planning on implementing it anytime soon. We did all of our manuals in Word, converted them to PDF, and sent them to a printer. For that particular job (writing manuals about proprietary hardware and software for a niche market) there wasn’t much technology to keep up with. Other jobs, I’ve felt behind the power curve even with a Master’s in IT.
Here’s one you could add:
11. Job insecurity. When a company needs to lower the head-count, it’s not their engineering or sales forces that get cut. It tends to be more peripheral roles like the technical writers, the test team, and maybe support person or two. Long term prospects for Technical Writers in I.T. are frightening, unless you’re happy to relocate to India or elsewhere in the developing world. True or False?
So all in all, I’d say about 50-50. But as previous posters pointed out, a lot of these stereotypes could apply to many people in many fields – especially the “sold out” and “IT geek” ones.
Although I don’t (*yet*) have a Master’s degree, don’t have even half the years of experience, and never felt “behind the power curve,” I can identify with Joe’s comments, and his #11. In my professional career, I’ve worked at only 2 companies. I was at the first for 10 years, until the company restructured ‘to cut costs’ and positions in several teams of the IT dept were eliminated or outsourced, including mine (the documentation team). When I started on the team in ‘99 (after 3+yrs in another dept), the team had 9 people; when the company restructured in ‘05, the team had 3. I was the last FT employee on the team, which also included 2 PT contractors.
After a 15-month contracting stint at another company, I took a year of family leave, and am now looking to get back to work FT. I’ve seen plenty of job listings for tech writers, but in companies over an hour away. Since I’m not willing to take on a commute of an hour+ each way at this time, and am unable to relocate (for several reasons), I’m still an unemployed tech writer.
Clarification: I don’t have even half the years of experience that Joe has, is what I meant to say.
Robin, I feel for you. I’ve been in my current job for over three years, and despite my hour-long commute each way, I intend to hold onto it as long as I can. This is my third job since ‘99. I left the job I had in ‘99 one step ahead of a layoff. Then, in early ‘03, almost got laid off again due to a lack of work. A sub-contract at the 11th hour that was supposed to be for 6 months but morphed into a 2-year gig saved me. Pay rates continue to fall (at least in the area where I live) and I blame this on the Technical Writers out there who are willing to settle for anything they can get. ($56k a year for a Senior Tech Writer with a Masters Degree?!)I just recently started working toward my Microsoft Certified System Administrator certificate. Hopefully that will make me more employable. The TW market looks better for contractors than it does for FT – at least in my area. A couple of contract gigs could land you a FT position. Besides, it’s easier to get hired when you’re working than when you’re out of work. I wish you luck.
Technical writing is boring.
True. I’m glad I’m able to make a living as a TW, but sometimes I have to fight the urge to gouge my eyes out with a stick.
2. Technical writing stifles your creativity.
True. I have a pretty popular mommy/humor blog and you can always tell when I’m working on a tight TW deadline because all of a sudden my blog becomes a dead zone of recycled posts. I can’t be creative AND productive at tech writing. It’s one or the other. Maybe it’s just me, but TW is the opposite of creative. It’s mechanical, methodical, and detailed. It can be interesting and engrossing, but it’s not creative.
3. You do a lot of writing as a technical writer.
Yeah. Along with other stuff. (Specific, aren’t I?)
4. You need a job in technical communication to get a job in technical communication.
More or less true.
5. Technical writers are second-class citizens in IT departments.
I think this is true until you prove you’re not an idiot. It’s true that engineers will always acknowledge their brilliance before your own, but a nicely turned out ERD does a lot to convince people you know how to tie your shoes. That and a sense of humor. Typically by the end of the engagement, I’ve got them eating out of my hand ;>
6. Technical writers feel as if they’ve sold out.
No way. I don’t get that at all. We all have to have jobs, don’t we? What an odd supposition.
7. You can easily support a family with other writing careers outside of technical writing.
If you’re lucky, maybe. You can charge a LOT more per hour as a tech writer. Unless you make it huge as a national market author or as a screenwriter in Hollywood, tech writing is by far the most lucrative writing career.
8. You have to know a lot of tools to break into technical communication.
Not to break in. You have to know the tools required for the job. Sometimes not even that. Most of them are pretty easy to figure out with a couple of hours of practice. There have been plenty of occasions where I’ve just said I knew the tool. The HR people have no idea. The engineers usually don’t know the TW tools. Within a day I’m up to speed.
9. Technical writers are introverted, isolated, boring geeks.
No way.
10. Because IT technologies change so frequently, you have to spend large amounts of your spare time just keeping up with what’s new.
Nah.
Fascinating comments on this post.
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[...] two weeks ago I posted a survey about 10 technical writing stereotypes. 221 people participated in the survey. The results are [...]