Why I Became a Technical Writer

We need more respect!

When I wrote my assignments for my high school and university courses, my wordsmithing was guided by my English-speaking brain — on some kind of autopilot — to find the right grammatical structures for me. “Does this sentence look/sound/feel right?” If yes, the sentence was deemed acceptable and locked in its place in the assignment.

This technique worked reasonably well for I was regarded as a better writer of my peers. This swelled my head a bit, but my peers could only be regarded as somewhat capable in their skills. So I never asked: “What do I really know about good writing? People with swelled heads usually don’t ask these kinds of questions.

Ten years after graduating from engineering, I found myself in Czechoslovakia teaching English to people emerging from communist rule. The language schools I was working for used popular English teaching workbooks. These workbooks were also teaching me about the nuances of the English language.

Did you know there is a big difference between:

1) I have studied English,

2) I have been studying English,

3) I studied English, and

4) I was studying English?

Before I would just let my autopilot pick one of these four constructions. After I understood the differences, I realized I wasn’t always making the best choice. But now I could apply English options and principles to find the better construction for a more effective message. I was no longer on autopilot in my writing.

When I finished my English-teaching sojourn, I thought my new-found love for the English language with my engineering background would be a good career combination. I became self-taught in English grammar and writing skills. I regarded writing similar to engineering, applying technical principles to achieve a certain technical objective. I set myself up to be a free-lance technical writer.

I enjoyed the writing challenge of my contracts. I liked applying the technical principles of English. I liked massaging sentences and paragraphs into better sentences and paragraphs. I liked putting myself as the user and anticipating the needs. I liked making complicated things…

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