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Career Details :: Technical Writers
Description
Write technical materials, such as equipment manuals, appendices, or operating and maintenance instructions. May assist in layout work.
Experience
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Education
A bachelor's degree is the minimum formal education required for these occupations. However, many also require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Training
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Tasks
- Organizes material and completes writing assignment according to set standards regarding order, clarity, conciseness, style, and terminology.
- Edits, standardizes, or makes changes to material prepared by other writers or establishment personnel.
- Observes production, developmental, and experimental activities to determine operating procedure and detail.
- Maintains records and files of work and revisions.
- Selects photographs, drawings, sketches, diagrams, and charts to illustrate material.
- Confers with customer representatives, vendors, plant executives, or publisher to establish technical specifications and to determine subject material to be developed for publication.
- Arranges for typing, duplication, and distribution of material.
- Draws sketches to illustrate specified materials or assembly sequence.
- Analyzes developments in specific field to determine need for revisions in previously published materials and development of new material.
- Reviews manufacturer's and trade catalogs, drawings, and other data relative to operation, maintenance, and service of equipment.
- Reviews published materials and recommends revisions or changes in scope, format, content, and methods of reproduction and binding.
- Assists in laying out material for publication.
- Interviews production and engineering personnel and reads journals and other material to become familiar with product technologies and production methods.
- Studies drawings, specifications, mock-ups, and product samples to integrate and delineate technology, operating procedure, and production sequence and detail.
Related Careers
- Broadcast News Analysts
- Creative Writers
- Editors
- Radio and Television Announcers
- Reporters and Correspondents
Important Abilities
General Work Activities
- Getting Information Needed to Do the Job
- Communicating With Other Workers
- Documenting/Recording Information
- Interpreting Meaning of Information to Others
- Drafting & Specifying Technical Devices, etc.
Important Skills
- Writing
- Reading Comprehension
- Information Gathering
- Synthesis/Reorganization
- Information Organization
Frequent Work Context
- Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
- Job-Required Social Interaction
- Indoors
- Objective or Subjective Information
- Provide a Service to Others
Related Majors
| Major | Add to XapPack |
|---|---|
| Business Administration/Communication Arts |  [ add ] |
| Business Communication | [ add ] |
| Business Communications | [ add ] |
| Business Writing | [ add ] |
| Corporate Communication | [ add ] |
| Corporate Communications | [ add ] |
| Creative Writing | [ add ] |
| English Creative Writing | [ add ] |
| English Literature/Creative Writing | [ add ] |
| English Literature/Writing | [ add ] |
| English Writing | [ add ] |
| English Writing/Literature | [ add ] |
| English/Creative Writing | [ add ] |
| English/Professional Writing | [ add ] |
| English/Writing | [ add ] |
| Fiction Writing | [ add ] |
| International Business Communications | [ add ] |
| Journalism/Technical Writing | [ add ] |
| Management Communication/Public Relations | [ add ] |
| Organizational Communication | [ add ] |
| Organizational Communications | [ add ] |
| Pre-dental Studies | [ add ] |
| Professional Communication | [ add ] |
| Professional Writing | [ add ] |
| Professional Writing/Business Management | [ add ] |
| Professional Writing/English | [ add ] |
| Professional/Technical Writing | [ add ] |
| Technical Writing | [ add ] |
| Technical Writing/Editing | [ add ] |
| Technical/Professional Writing | [ add ] |
| Writing | [ add ] |
| Writing for Publication/Performance/Media | [ add ] |
| Writing Intensive English | [ add ] |
| Writing Popular Fiction | [ add ] |
| Writing/Literature | [ add ] |
| Writing/Literature/Publishing | [ add ] |
| Writing/Publishing | [ add ] |
Institutions Offering Related Majors
No institutions found.