Home-Based Business as a Technical Writer – Technical writing needs a capability of the English language, and serious attention to detail. For those work at home moms who fit the bill, it might be a great career choice.
Technical writing is an expertise that may simply allow you to work at home. A technical writer usually works alone or remotely as part of a team of writers, to create documents and manuals for businesses or other professional disciplines.
Home-Based Business as a Technical Writer – Things to Consider
- Skills and Training Needed
A Technical Writing degree or English is preferred by employers hiring writers in this section. Others have a degree in a specialized sphere, like medicine, engineering or science, and then take classes to learn communication abilities that are technical. They need to be experts at fact-checking and have the capacity to pay attention to small details; the people who read the technical files they create are occasionally experts within a field, and will simply spot thoughtless work or fact errors.
Technical writers also must have the capacity to conduct independent research, and interview experts in specific fields to gain the information needed to make documents or training manuals. Some use their bilingual abilities to produce or translate technical documents. Technical writers generally specialize in one area of writing, such as medical records or how to guides within a particular area.
- Types of Work for Technical Writers
Here are a few of the types of jobs that a technical writer will soon be hired for:
- Training manuals for government agencies or private businesses
- How-to manuals for technical equipment or software
- Web design and development
- Information architecture, such as developing a software system for a library catalog
- Financial documents for corporations
The work that a technical writer produces can be online or in printed form. You may be hired to make technical documents that were shorter by yourself, or as part of a team of technical writers. Teams are used to create lengthy technical documents, with all writer assigned a portion of the work.
- How Technical Writing Jobs Work
Once you have been hired for a technical writing job, you will start the research stage. This will definitely include reading and online research from documents or other technical manuals. It may also need interviewing people who are specialists on the subject matter and compiling the information from those interviews. You’ll have to study the audience who’ll be reading the document also, to determine their level of technical skill. Such as, the number of technical detail which goes into a training manual for retail store employees would be quite different from a manual that describes a piece of aerospace technology for professional engineers.
Once the research stage is finish, you will write a draft of the document. A finished draft of the document or application is submitted to the customer, and an expert or team of experts will proof it for errors, consistency and level of expertise. Before the finished product is ready for publication, the document may go through one or more rewrites.
- Pay Rates for Technical Writers
Because of research and the technical nature involved, technical writers are paid higher rates than regular freelance writers. Salaries can range from $30 to $75 per hour, depending on your own level of expertise and field of knowledge.
If you possess the needed skills and training, a home-based business as a technical writer might be extremely lucrative. It’s generally less competitive than attempting to get other freelance writing jobs. The earlier you’re able to show hired or printed works on your resume, the quicker you’ll gain income to work at home full time.
References:
- Work at Home as a Technical Writer
- Image: shownet.tk
Article publié pour la première fois le 25/08/2015