Technical Writers
Write technical materials, such as equipment manuals, appendices, or operating and maintenance instructions. May assist in layout work.
- Median pay
- $90,390
- Doing it now
- 46,400
- By 2035
- Up 0.8%
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
a year
across the country
3,200 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Organize material and complete writing assignment according to set standards regarding order, clarity, conciseness, style, and terminology.
- Maintain records and files of work and revisions.
- Edit, standardize, or make changes to material prepared by other writers or establishment personnel.
- Confer with customer representatives, vendors, plant executives, or publisher to establish technical specifications and to determine subject material to be developed for publication.
- Review published materials and recommend revisions or changes in scope, format, content, and methods of reproduction and binding.
- Select photographs, drawings, sketches, diagrams, and charts to illustrate material.
- Study drawings, specifications, mockups, and product samples to integrate and delineate technology, operating procedure, and production sequence and detail.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Rhetoric and Composition/Writing StudiesSee 506 colleges that teach it
- Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied CommunicationSee 470 colleges that teach it
- Business/Corporate CommunicationsSee 64 colleges that teach it
- Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences Business ServicesSee 16 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Organised and precise
Creative and expressive
Analytical and curious
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $90,390 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.