Becoming a Technical Writer

I changed my major three times in college, going through almost all of the emphasis categories of English before finally settling on professional writing.

Many students I know have chosen professional writing because they cannot make any money from creative writing. So many of these students plan to go into editing-- the closest thing they can get to creative writing in a technical writing field. To those who make it in that career path I wish them luck. But let's face it, how many jobs are there as editors? Especially for young adult fiction, which seems to be the popular genre of choice.

Technical writing is more than just making instruction manuals and guides. Tom Johnson the author of www.idratherbewriting, a popular technical writing blog, spoke at a conference about how technical writing is not just writing manuals, but it is designing and laying out documents, learning software, developing and researching the use of products. It is not boring. Being a technical writer is not a punishment for a unimaginative world, but it is a respectable and fulfilling career. CNN Money says that it is the 28th best job in the United States: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/full_list/index.html. Technical writing is a great career choice.