Technical Communication Resources

• Technical Communication. From Wikipedia.
• What Is Technical Communication? From University of Central Florida.
• What is Technical Communications? From TECHWR-L
• What is Technical Writing? From WiseGEEK.
• 14 Widespread Myths about Technical Writing. Post at the I'd Rather Be Writing blog, focusing on the latest trend in technical communication.
• ACC Subject Guide for Business & Technical Communications. Developed by Adrian Graham and Teresa Ashley, Austin Community College professional librarians
• Technical Writing World. Social network for technical communicators
• Staples, Katherine, and Cezar Ornatowski, Eds. Foundations for Teaching Technical Communication: Theory, Practice, and Program Design. Greenwich, CN: Ablex, 1997. Read Grice, Roger A. "Professional Roles: Technical Writer"
• Fearing, Bertie E., and Sparrow, W. Keats. Technical Writing: Theory and Practice. New York: MLA Association, 1989. Read Grice, Roger A. "Document Development in Industry" and Debs, Mary Beth. "Collaborative writing in Industry"
• Hackos, JoAnn T. Managing Your Documentation Projects. New York: Wiley. The entire book—yes, the entire book. However, chapters 1 - 4 (about eighty pages) may suffice for an overview.
• Michael Bremer. Untechnical Writing - How to Write About Technical Subjects and Products So Anyone Can Understand. Untechnical Press. The most recent edition.
• Alan S. Pringle, Sarah S. O'Keefe. Technical Writing 101: A Real-World Guide to Planning and Writing Technical Documentation. Scriptorum. The most recent edition.
• Jay Gould. Opportunities in Technical Writing. McGraw-Hill, 2008.
• Alan S. Pringle, Sarah S. O'Keefe. Technical Writing 101: A Real-World Guide to Planning and Writing Technical Documentation. Scriptorium. Gives you a thorough sense of technical writing in the computer industry.
• Michael Bremer. Untechnical Writing - How to Write About Technical Subjects and Products So Anyone Can Understand. Untechnical Press. Also, gives you a thorough sense of technical writing in the computer industry.
• Gerald J. Savage, Dale L. Sullivan. Writing a Professional Life: Stories of Technical Communicators on and off the Job, Allyn and Bacon, 2001. There is no better place to get a detailed sense of the profession than the 23 articles in this book. All of the articles are great, but if you are pressed for time, don't miss these:
  "Glimpse into Reality"
  "How I Became a Goddess"
  "Three Months, Three Pages"
  "Conquering the Cubicle Syndome"
  "Try and Try Again: The Story of a Software Project"
  "Tech Writing and the Art of Laziness"
  "Daze at the Round Table"
  "Diary of a Tech Writer"
  "Thumbnails"
  "Madame Mao in the Midwest"

• TechnicalWritingZone.com. A little bit of everything.
• Internet Resources for Technical Communicators. Provided by Keith Soltys, this site offers many more resources than does this one.
• TECHWR-L. Search archives and articles.
• What Is Technical Writing?. From WordDesign.com.
• Internet Resources for Technical Communicators. Provided by Keith Soltys, this site offers many more resources than does this one.
• Resources for Technical Writers. From Writers Write, Inc.

• Job Search and Technical Communication Careers. From TECHWR-L.
• The Help Files: Landing the Job, Office Life & Freelancing. From TECHWR-L.
• Descriptions of Major Resume Banks. By Clara Horvath at jobstar.com.
• salary.com. In the Click Salary Wizard, enter "technical writer" and a zip code and press Search. The base salary ranges are free to view.
• Technical Writers. From Occupational Outlook Handbook.

In these generalized job sites, search on "technical writer," "technical communicator," "information specialist," "technical editor," "online help writer (or developer)," "content developer (or specialist)".

• indeed.com. Start here. Search on technical writer then subscribe to that search so you'll see searches in your e-mail everyday.
• IBM Job Listings. Job descriptions IBM - U.S.
• craigslist—Austin. Choose your city, state, nation, continent.
• TECHWR-L employment links
• Jobs. On the TECHWR-L main page, click "Jobs" for a big listing of job websites by Google. In these, search "technical writer" and related terms.
• CareerBuilder.com. Search on "technical writer."
• dice.com. Specializes in information technology jobs.
• Yahoo! Careers
• Best and Worst Jobs 2010. From the Wall Street Journal; we are 13th!
• The Write Jobs. A collection of articles on employment.
• Elance.com
• Employment Central. Links to actual technical-writing jobs with requirements. Gives you a picture of the array of work that technical writers do. From TECHWR-L.
• NationJob Network. Search on you-know-what.

• How to Use Volunteering to Get a Job in Technical Writing. techwhirl.com
• How to get an internship: step-by-step guide. resume.io
• Outreachy. Lotsc of internship resources.
• What Is an Internship?. WikiJob.
• Best Websites for Writers to Get Freelance Jobs
• Builtin. Click Jobs then search technical writer.
• TWi And Tech Writers Without Borders And You. Sign up!
• How to Use Volunteering to Get a Job in Technical Writing
• How to Get an Internship. Nvorésumé ApS, Denmark.
• Cover Letter for Internship Guide. Nvorésumé ApS, Denmark.
• Democracy Now internships. Paid, 20 hour per week, temporary work placements.
• Tips and Resources for Getting Student Jobs or Internships. Made available by affordablecollegesonline.org
• A Guide to Internships. Made available by Learn How to Become.org
• A Guide to Internships. Made available by MoneyGeek.com
• But don't work for free or for cheap. From Samita Sarkar, Freelancers Union.
• Simply Hired
• After College
• Student Educational Employment Program. From the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
• internships.com
• How to Use Volunteering to Get a Job in Technical Writing. From TECHWR-L.

• A Guide to Interview Success
• Interviewing. Join and search.

Resumes. McMurrey

• Technical editor/technical writer. Look under the Jobs column—writer/editor.
• Technical-writer resumes. This link provides a search for technical writers from TECHWR-L articles.
• TECHWR-L Archives. Search for the same as above in the TECHWR-L archives.
• Job-Interview-Site.com. Example resume.
• Career FAQs. Example resume.

• Building an NDA-Compliant Portfolio. techwhirl.com
• Where Should I Host a Technical Writing Portfolio?. ClickHelp, 2020
• UI/UX portfolio: 13 best practices. Shilpa Tripathi. Jun 6, 2018
• Where Should I Host a Technical Writing Portfolio?. Anastasia, ClickHelp, 2020.
• Presenting Your Professional Portfolio in the Digital Age. From TECHWR-L.
• Developing an Annotated Portfolio. From TECHWR-L.
• Search . Search on "portfolio," Provided by TECHWR-L.
• Portfolios. Search "portfolios" in Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com.
• Building a Technical Writing Portfolio. Kesi Parker, 2018.
• How to Build a Technical Writing Portfolio. ClickHelp, 2019.
• 7 Technical Writing Projects Ideal for a Technical Writing Portfolio. Ugur Akici, 2017.
• Put together a portfolio (TW Job). Tom Johnson, 2009.

Chicago Style for the Singular They. Chicago Manual of Style's big change! Published spring 2017.

The Singular 'They' Must Be Stopped. A decidedly opposite point of view published in The Atlantic, 2013.

Gender-Inclusive Language. Provided by the Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Nonbinary gender pronouns. Provided by the Writing Center, in collaboration with Melinda Lee, Assistant Director, Gender and Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans Life, University of Minnesota

These are overviews of a variety of tools:

• Independent tools survey. MadCap Flare wins!
• Internet Resources for Technical Communicators. Provided by Keith Soltys.

Please see these pages that focus on individual tool areas:

• Adobe FrameMaker resources
• MS Word resources
• Online help resources
• Editing resources
• Graphics resources
• Basics resources
• HTML & CSS resources

• The Help Files: Landing the Job, Office Life & Freelancing. From TECHWR-L.
• HomeWorkingMom.com
• TECHWR-L Archives. Search for "telecommuting" and similar terms in the TECHWR-L archives.
• Freelance Writers. Articles collected at about.com.
• Kent, Peter. Technical Writer's Freelancing Guide. The most recent edition.
• Peter Kent. Making Money in Technical Writing. Arco, 1997.
• Janet S. Underwood. Your Freelance Writing Business: A practical guide for starting and running a freelance technical and business writing service. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Jan 26, 2011

• McMurrey, David A. Chapter on documentation process
• Price, Jonathan and Henry Korman. How to Communication Technical Information: A Handbook of Software and Hardware Documentation. Redwood City, CA: Benjamin/Cummings, 1993. ISBN 0-8053-6829-9. Read:
  • Chapter 1, "The Project Cycle—What You Do at Each Stage"
  • Chapter 2, "Gathering Information"
  • Chapter 3, "Understanding Your Audience and Their Work"
  • Chapter 4, "Learning about the Product"
  • Chapter 5, "Planning the Documentation"
  • Chapter 6, "Developing a Schedule and Estimating Costs"
• Alan S. Pringle, Sarah S. O'Keefe. Technical Writing 101: A Real-World Guide to Planning and Writing Technical Documentation. Scriptorium.
• Michael Bremer. Untechnical Writing—How to Write About Technical Subjects and Products So Anyone Can Understand. Untechnical Press.
• Hackos, JoAnn T. Managing Your Documentation Projects. New York: Wiley, 1994. The entire book—yes, the entire book. However, chapters 1 - 4 (about eighty pages) may suffice for an overview.
• TECHWR-L archives. Search the same terms in the TECHWR-L archives.

Professional Organizations and Societies

• ACM SIGDOC. The Special Interest Group for Documentation, of the Association for Computing Machinery.
• American Society of Indexers. An important specialization for technical communicators.
• Association for Proposal Management Professionals. Another important specialization for technical communicators.
• Association of Teachers of Technical Writing
• Australian Society of Indexers
• Society for Technical Communication
• National Writers Union. Affiliated with AFL-CIO.
• IEEE Professional Communication Society . Technical communication part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
• National Association of Science Writers

Technical Writing Genres

• Annual REports. TechnicalWritingZone.com, 2018.

Basic, Simplified English

Basic English. wikipedia

Simple English. wikipedia