Thursday, December 04, 2008

Technical Writing

For some of those who know me personally, know I am not only a poet but I am also a technical writer. I have been lucky enough to have had some sort of writing job since my junior year in college from being a marketing associate for Arte Publico Press to a technical writer for CenterPoint Energy.

Some have asked me why I decided to focus on this career instead of pursuing an MFA in Poetry. (I was accepted into the MFA program at Long Island University) Besides the obvious reason i.e. the impracticality of the MFA degree, I knew I loved all things technological. I love techno-porn, I'm a huge nerd. I love learning new software and problem solving. I also know that in our information age, content is key to any successful business. That's where technical writers come in and companies are more than willing to pay for our services. I guess, it's not a surprise that I decided to pursue an M.S. in Technical Communication.

Since I made the decision, I found myself not only immersed in poetry but also in the Tech Comm field. So, every once in a while I will post some information about the subject here. I'll try to keep it to minimum or at least start a new blog focused on the subject later down the road. In the end, I remain a poet, a connoisseur of words, of language. But perhaps this might interest people too. Besides, it's another passion of mine and I wanted to share it.

Here is a video I found called the Technical Writer song. Also, I found these two websites that provides invaluable information of the field. The first one is a website aggregator of all the top stories regarding tech comm and the second one is The EServer Technical Communication Library, "a free, open-access index of works available online for professional, scientific and technical communicators."

2 comments:

Wandering Kotka said...

Having myself a very vague idea of what, if anything, a tech writer does, I really found this post illuminating. I'm glad that you're working in a field that excites you so--and now I can understand why it does!

the amplified bard said...

you have no idea how many puzzled looks i get when i state my profession. everyone thinks it's mundane, tedious work (which it can be) but it's mostly challenging, which i love.