My Start in Tech Writing
My first exposure to technical writing was writing job aids and lesson plans on an Apple IIe. Nothing fancy. I enjoyed tinkering with the computer more than the job.
A year later I returned to college. I remember well an English class. The professor was a stereotypical English teacher with gray hair wound in a bun, eyeglasses, and a no-mercy, take-no-prisoners attitude. The class was challenging. She was relentless with daily writing assignments. When the term ended and students were asked for class assessments I wrote, “I hated your teaching style and I hated your class, but I am grateful for all I learned from you. Thank you.”
That same term I had a technical report writing class. I got lazy on one assignment. The instructor gave me a C. The C was understandable but the instructor’s comments on the paper hurt. I asked if I could have 24 hours to rewrite the assignment. He agreed and I got an A. Second chances in life are rare.
Little did I know the seeds were planted for my love for writing.
About a year later I put my college degree on hold to accept a good job. The job required writing summaries in work orders of problems found and solutions. Rather than write short stiff jargon, I used the opportunity to tell stories. Not prose stories but detailed summaries of the job minus the traditional shorthand.
A couple of years later I finished my B.S. Electronics, concurrently attending classes while working. At that time I was one of the few people who owned a home computer (actually two: a Commodore 64 and an Amiga 1000). By default I was one of the few who was considered knowledgeable about computers (ha!). At work the shop supervisor assigned me to work on a process computer monitoring system.
The vendor documentation left much to be desired. I started organizing notes and drawings in a three-ring binder. The collection grew. I continually reorganized. Eventually I had a nice binder that became a shop reference guide for anybody working on the system.
Later at the same company I transferred to maintenance planning. I wrote the work orders.
I was hooked.
Thereafter I ventured out on my own. I realized how little I knew about structured writing. As this was a time before the world wide web, I bought dead tree books. I studied. With almost each sentence I continually consulted the books. I learned.
Then one day I realized how little I was consulting the books.
To this day I continually revise and edit myself. Hard. I love writing but my goal is to communicate. To share. Why else write?
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: Tech Writing
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