Why major in Technical Communication?

The demand for technical communication professionals is growing as communities become more technically advanced. These professionals take technical concepts and—most often by writing clearly—put them into easily understood language for various audiences.  Technical communication majors will have a wide variety of career paths available to them, and will be able to earn a competative salary doing so.

• Careers - Technical communicators do more than just write; they also perform research related to their specific field of interest. Technical communicators may work in areas such as engineering, health care, environmental sciences, computer programming, and product development. Media in which they work include manuals, newsletters, journals, videos, and online documentation.
• Salary - According to the Society for Technical Communication (STC), the average entry-level salary in 2001 was $36,200.  The average salary for a non-supervisory senior-level technical communicator was $56,700.

What characteristics would lead a student to be successful in Technical Communication?

A student in the Tech Comm major would benefit from an interest in and/or aptitude for

• working with computers and emerging technologies,
• learning computer software and/or programming languages (knowledge of a computer language is a plus with employers), analyzing texts, especially non-literary texts,
• reading, especially non-literary texts,
• writing, especially analyses or professional/technical documents,
• paying attention to detail, especially in editing his/her own work and the work of others,
• taking and following instructions,
• articulating complex ideas in a form that is understandable for a specific audience, and
• working in a related technical or scientific field (to complete the required minor).

What do employers look for in our graduates?

Employers hiring graduates from this program especially look for students who are

• flexible
• willing to ask questions
• willing to learn new things
• skilled in researching and interviewing
• familiar with a variety of software applications and experienced in the workplace (i.e., have worked outside the classroom).

What career paths might a Tech Comm graduate take?

Tech Comm students often pursue positions in scientific and technical writing/editing within

• communication units of larger companies or nonprofits
• communication-based units of local, state and federal governments
• documentation units of software developers or publishers and
• the service sector in such areas as web design and communication consulting.

Professional and technical communicators perform a wide range of jobs in a variety of business and organizational settings. Those jobs include but are not limited to

• writing articles for websites, brochures, promotional materials, and newsletters,
• producing reports, executive summaries and documents for dissemination to a variety of audiences (or to a very specific audience in a technical field),
• writing, editing and/or producing manuals, web documents, journal articles, proposals, outlines of health benefits plans, legal documents and contracts for real estate deals,
• designing and constructing instructional and training materials for print, CD-ROM, DVD or Web distribution, and
• creating graphic design and illustration for documentation (acting as illustrator, videographer or multimedia designer).