Become A Professional Writer With A Communications Degree!
In the writing profession, probably one of the hardest specialists to find is the technical writer. While there are many who would love to work in that arena, there's just something about covering technology in both a clear and entertaining manner that defies those who got their Bachelors in Liberal Arts pouring over the words of Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The bald truth is that since the explosion of the World Wide Web, anyone with Internet access believes they can get away with being called a writer, for little or no pay. Some are good enough to develop followings and get paid better.
A technical writer must not only be able to communicate effectively, but really must know what they are writing about. The technical community is a merciless audience and a minor technological error or a fact communicated poorly, can have professionally dire effects. Further, a person who can explain a scientific advance so that even the general public understands is not very easy to find.
In the past, the domain of the technical writer was mainly that of scientific journals and technical manuals. Those with a little extra creative juice would also do science fiction. These days, the communications explosion brought on by the Internet has created an extreme demand for good tech writers. They now can find solid employment in media previously unheard of.
There are two ways to actually become such a writer. The first is one can go to school and get a B.A. in English, Journalism or Communications, but also have a strong comprehension of the scientific world. From there, they can usually find work as a freelancer or copy editor, move up to a fulltime journalist and then start publishing books or becoming a managing editor.
Yet a professional secret the literary world doesn't want known is that the English language is really a pretty simple one. Anyone with decent communications skills and a comprehension of power statements can do it. It's understanding technology that hangs these pros up.
This leads to the second path to becoming a technical writer. Essentially the best writers out there are those with a Bachelor of Science degree in a particular field. If they want to write, they only need a basic course in journalism and a copy of Strunk & White's Elements of Style.
As to getting published, the best thing to do is write some pieces for a number of different web sites on the World Wide Web, and do one's first pieces for little money at all or for free. If your article is clear and displays a touch of flair, it won't take long to start building a following. Do enough, and the next thing one knows is the big publishers start soliciting. Get regular work from them and your career is set.
The kicker is that a professional technical writer can earn a decent paycheck. On the average, the specialty makes about $60,000 a year. True, with rare exceptions the field is a freelancer's one, so health care and such usually needs to be provided by the writer themselves. The wonderful thing about writing is that it can be done at any time, even if one holds another job! Therefore online school is the perfect way to achieve your online six sigma degree.
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