Re: Getting started in tech writing...

Subject: Re: Getting started in tech writing...
From: "Marie C. Paretti" <mparetti -at- RRINC -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 11:32:48 -0400

Whoever asked this question -- great idea! I'm really enjoying people's
histories. . . .

As for me, I fall into the "writer by vocation, tech writer by default"
category. In college I majored in chemical engineering, but when I found I
couldn't handle a semester with no English classes, I minored in English,
too. I graduated and got a job as an engineer, primarily because I could
write -- a literate engineer, to those who hired me, seemed like a freak of
nature.

Alas, while I like chemical engineering as a hobby (don't laugh), it wasn't
the ideal life for me. So I quit and went back to school to get an M.A. in
English, with an eye toward a PhD and the academic life. I started
mid-year, though, so couldn't get a teaching assistantship at first; an old
ChE prof offered to let me work as his lab tech, which led to editing
technical articles for a ChE journal he was part of, which led to editing
textbooks his grad students wrote. While getting my M.A. I took my one and
only course in Technical and Professional Writing, which was primarily an
introduction to the field and its resources (c. 1988).

I finished my M.A. and for personal reasons wasn't ready for the Phud yet,
so I got a job teaching half-time at the university, and on a random chance
(one of my profs read a job ad on a bulletin board in the hall and ordered
me to apply!) got a half-time position writing software docs for a local
company. As part of my academic job, I got to teach technical writing, so
I got my hand into some good books on the subject and started putting words
to concepts that I'd been practicing for years. Did that for a couple of
years, decided it was PhD time, moved to Wisconsin (not as willingly as
Keith Wolfe, though!), wrote a dissertation on contemporary poetry, and
kept freelancing as a writer to supplement the less-than-bountiful income
of an English TA. I did more work for the ChE prof who got me started,
worked as an editor for a student mag put out by InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship (another job I got through random contacts), got into grant
writing for that organiztion., edited people's dissertations, did more
software documentation, etc. In the midst of all of that, I was minoring
in Composition Theory, so I got strong doses of rhetorical/comp theory as
part of my PhD, and spent a lot of my TA time in front of first-year
composition students -- English 101 at its finest! As always, trying to
teach/coach others how to do something taught me a great deal about my own
writing skills.

All of my writing jobs have been word-of-mouth/random-chance things -- even
my current position. I wanted to move back to Virginia but couldn't find a
teaching job in the area (tenure-track jobs in English Lit with a specialty
in poetry aren't exactly flooding the market); an old prof of mine here had
just gotten a note from another former student saying that the small
software company he worked for was looking for a tech writer. I was down
here for spring break; on a whim, I called, sent a resume, interviewed, and
got hired. I've never actually set out to look for a technical writing
position -- people read things I write, ask for help, recommend me to other
people, and the next thing I know someone is paying me something. I must
say I feel incredibly blessed, and I don't take any of it for granted.

In all of this, writing remains my passion, though it's taken a long time
and a lot of degrees for me to see myself as a Writer. Tech writing is one
part of that, and I enjoy it but I can't say I have the passion for it that
some do -- my real writing joys lay in the ever-so-lucrative fields of
poetry and essays (academic and otherwise), but I also like to eat regular
meals and pay my rent. So here I am -- working as the sole tech
writer/trainer/proposal writer for a wonderful company that gives me a lot
of freedom and a lot of opportunity to expand my skills and stretch my
writing/teaching muscles, while at the same time keeping me current with
the latest technology -- I never can bring myself to leave the engineer in
me languishing for long! I still freelance when I can find the time,
working with a friend's forestry company, editing the occasional textbook,
still doing the grant writing, sending off abstracts to academic
conferences, etc. I'm grateful that I have projects that allow me to keep
writing, be it about software system administration, gypsy moth problems,
or the poetry of Louise Gluck.

Marie

Marie C. Paretti, PhD
Recognition Research, Inc. (RRI)
1750 Kraft Drive, Suite 2000
Blacksburg, VA 24060
mparetti -at- rrinc -dot- com
http://www.rrinc.com


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