A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Friday, October 07, 2011

COMM 150, 337: Ever thought about tech writing as a career?

This morning from the Yahoo! Finance page, a Fox Business feature headed "10 Most Popular Jobs and What They Pay" caught my eye ... up there in the top 10 was this:
Technical Writer
Technical writers can work in a variety of fields and are tasked with taking complicated topics and making it understandable for a general audience.

Median annual salary: $56,000
Percentage of respondents who are satisfied: 71%
Think about it. File it away under "You don't have to starve in an attic or wait till they're hiring PR professionals again."

4 comments:

Kaitlyn Keen said...

Thank you for this idea, Doc! I love to write and I think this is something I should consider.

Haley said...

Technical writer seems interesting. I am very indecisive about what I am going to do with my communications degree because there are so many choices.

Stacie Taylor said...

I know someone who designs software for a small company. Because they have a very small staff, each employee has to take on many different tasks. So, not only does she have to design the program, she has to write the manuals on how to use it. They primarily design software for schools so she has to make sure the average teacher can read it. She once told me that it was almost harder and more tedious than creating the software itself.

dave maziarz said...

hey i definately need some ideas on what the hell to do with a comm degree. being a technical writer sounds like something i might be able to do

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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.