A few years ago, you could google the term “technical writer” and get dozens of hits for websites promising you could earn large sums of money from the comfort of your living room. All you had to do was order the definitive guide to becoming a technical writer — for only $40! Thankfully, those “Work at Home” ads are now relegated to the sponsored links columns, and our membership isn’t inundated with one-book-graduates.
If you google the term “technical writer” today, well over a million hits come up — definitions, courses, technical writers’ websites, and ads for technical writing jobs. Yet, there are still employers who don’t know if they need a technical writer, or how to go about finding one if they do.
In such a rapidly-growing field, how is it that our purpose and utility can remain hidden from the very people who need us?
Perhaps it’s the nature of the work we do. Technical communication is largely about helping people solve problems and making complex information easy to understand. If we’ve done our job right, then the average Joe or Jane doesn’t even have to think about the words we use to explain things, and they take it for granted that the information they’re getting is correct and in an optimal format. Turning that accomplishment into a job description, however, is another matter.
During the last century, technical writers were mostly scientists and engineers, and they wrote primarily for each other. Technical content included military and industrial equipment and machinery, things that often were not accessible or even of interest to the general public. With the advent of the computer and Internet, a whole new — and huge — industry was created, one that depended on bringing highly technical equipment into the lives and homes of average people. Explaining how it worked required the skills of people who could adapt to rapidly changing technology. Thus, technical communication moved into the mainstream.
Since that move, educational institutions have responded to the need for trained technical communicators. Training programs vary from one-day courses, to full- and part-time certification programs, to graduate and post-graduate degrees. Still, there are no standards in place defining the skill set of a technical writer. How do students know which course of studies to take? Do they even need to take courses to become technical communicators? Our professional membership has many qualified, competent people who haven’t undertaken a formal course of studies in technical communication.
Of course, we all know the field is varied, constantly expanding, and challenges categorization, making it hard to define a standard. The British Columbia Work Futures Occupational Profiles groups technical writers in with all other writers – journalists, scriptwriters, translators, and PR and communications specialists. Many of us perform these activities routinely and consider them part of our role, but, again, it’s a case of so much value created but so little clarity as to what that value is.
While Work Futures’ posted outlook is rather gloomy for the category of writers as a whole, with predictions of “slower growth than the average for all occupations,” the demand for technical writers is predicted to increase. But it’s up to us to make sure the supply corresponds to the demand, and part of this involves making sure people know what it is we do and what makes us qualified to do it. While technical communication will never fit into a “one-size-fits-all” category — and it certainly can’t be summed up in a $40 book! — perhaps it’s time for a concerted effort to define our profession and introduce standards that the average Jane or Joe understands.
