Technical writing?
There are two things I can’t shut up about when I meet people or connect with old friends. One is my experience in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, which destroyed and rebuilt me as Kristina v.2.0. The other is my current job at a little company that focuses on making people’s lives better through technology. I’m a professional writer/storyteller, and I couldn’t be more excited about that.
When friends (and some strangers) hear my excitement, I often hear one of two questions:
“I’d love to get into tech writing! Any advice?”
or…
“I’d love to get into journalism! Any advice?”
Woah now, hold on. Who said anything about tech writing? Or journalism? Sure sure, I spent several years between ages 18 and 23 writing and editing airline manuals — which is most certainly technical writing — but “science writing” does not a technical writer make. Nor vice versa.
Instead of spending 30 minutes explaining the differences in emails each time I receive these queries, let’s explore the difference between technical writing, science writing, science journalism, and so on. And then, a little look at breaking into both.
What is technical writing?
Technical writing is all about documentation. Technical writers write manuals. They write white papers. They help write and edit journal papers. They often work within organizations that are producing or operating technologies of some sort:
- Airlines
- Government agencies (like the CDC, FDA, or FAA, for instance)
- Legal agencies (like law firms or regulatory bodies)
- Medical companies (like pharmaceuticals or producers of medical-related machines)
- Electronics companies (like Samsung, Sony, or Bose)
- Software and hardware companies (like Microsoft, Oracle, or Nvidia)
- Universities and research institutions (like MIT or the Mayo Clinic)
- Web-based companies (like Amazon, eBay, and Facebook)
The primary directive of a technical writer is to provide documentation of a product, technology, or service to avoid ambiguity and is as concise as humanly possible. There’s little room or need in technical writing for creativity — especially if that documentation involves any legal implications at all.
A technical writer must also learn/adopt the given form and style of writing of the industry in which she works. If she’s working in a research institution and is helping create a scientific journal article on the, say, recent (possible) Higgs Boson discovery, she must write said paper in the same language and format as other journal articles in the field. She isn’t going to be creating a comic book for this purpose.
Like with any communications-related gig, technical writers must write for their audiences. They must write to serve a very specific purpose. And they tend to be heavily involved with collaboration; technical writing isn’t about the author of the document ‐ it’s solely about the clear communication of a technology, service, or product.
Examples of technical writing
You probably see some form of technical writing every day (and others, you’ll likely never see). You’ll usually recognize it by it’s seriousness.
Lipitor safety information
A perfect example of medication documentation. This particular manifestation lives on the Lipitor website.
Ultralight testing handbook
Issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, this is a no-holds-barred handbook (PDF) for assisting Ultralight plane builders to develop flight plans for their aircraft. Not something you’ll see every day, probably.
Specs for the Mac Book Pro
Because I’m a jerk who has far too many Apple products, here are the new retina display Mac Book Pro technical specs. Definitely tech writing.
Amazon Kindle publishing guide
Amazon has some great, thorough technical writers documenting the process involved in getting your e-book published for their Kindle. Most technical writers I know are doing things just like this these days.
What is science writing?
Science writing, in an itty bitty nutshell, is writing about science for non-scientific audiences. It’s a field in which creativity makes a writer shine — sometimes more so than their ability to actually understand the science at hand (an unfortunate problem, but I’ll save you the rant).
Sometimes it’s journalism, sometimes essays, sometimes documentaries. I’ll stress again: it’s any telling of science or technology that aims to provide understanding to the broadest of audiences. Almost always, science writing tells a story.
This may sound similar to technical writing, but it’s not. Technical writing sheds truth; science writing breeds understanding. It’s a fairly delicate distinction, but…not really.
I learn best by example, so here are some notable examples of science writing.
Not Exactly Rocket Science
Run by science writer Ed Yong over at Discover Magazine’s site, Not Exactly Rocket Science is always one of my go-to examples for people trying to understand what science writing is. It’s (in this case) journalism. It’s story. It’s fun.
CDC’s General Resources
The CDC has done a great job of explaining all sorts of complex medical and health-related issues to the general public. Here’s their entry on Coronary Atery Disease as an example.
Books like the Poisoner’s Handbook
One of my favorites, The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum makes chemicals far more interesting than they ever were in high school chemistry classes. How better to learn about chemistry than through Prohibition-era murders and intrigue? A great example of science through storytelling.
Books like Mr g
Not all science writing needs to be nonfiction. Alan Lightman (full disclosure: he was my graduate thesis advisor) takes physics and complex philosophical ideas intrinsic to the field, combines them into a creative exploration of god and science and blows everyone’s minds.
The common element to all of these examples? They’re all communicating complex ideas to wide audiences. They avoid complex language and field jargon, and they help provide a deeper understanding of the issues at hand.
Breaking into both
Now that we’ve looked into the difference between technical and science writing, we can take a look at what it takes to get into both. In this case, both approaches are similar .
College
As I mentioned, I got my Masters degree in science writing. Did it help me in my career? Most certainly yes (even though I may not be the type of science writer they were hoping to produce). Is it expensive? Yes, it can be. Is it worth it? Most certainly, if you have the resources. Is it completely necessary? Nope.
The best thing about going to school for either science writing or technical writing is that it provides you with crash-course exposure of what it’s like to work in either field. These programs can also be very helpful with job placement upon completion.
The good
- You get to work with peers in a safe, critically productive environment
- You learn from the best in the field
- You have credentials upon completion
- You have plenty of wonderful networking opportunities
Potential drawbacks
- When you’re in a program, you’re probably not working directly in the field
- Some programs are very expensive
Internships
I love internships. I had 7 throughout my undergraduate and graduate career. Internships provide you with real-world experience, invaluable to getting a “real gig” later on.
The good
- Real-world experience
- The ability to work with and learn from peers
- You get paid, sometimes!
- You often exit with a portfolio or something to show for your work
Potential drawbacks
- Sometimes you’re not paid. And that sucks
- Many internship programs only seek students
- Some internships devolve into grunt work, not always relevant to your desired career (I can think of one in particular right now. If you’d like to know which one, email me.)
- You’re almost always underpaid
Applying for jobs
If you have an idea of what you want to do, you can always just, you know, apply for jobs. There’s that.
To be successful with this route, it takes a whole lot of willpower, motivation, and self-control. You’ll need to:
- Be confident and (mostly) unwavering in your determination
- Do lots of research into your desired field
- Develop a portfolio on your own, be it through freelancing, contracts, or blogging
- Be active in the existing communities
- Read, read, and read in order to learn best practices and current trends
- Network with folks in your field, online (Twitter, blogs, etc) and off (relevant Meetups, conferences, etc.)
Basically, when you’re going at it on your own, you’ll need to do all the things both college and internships help you with, but go it solo. It can most certainly be done, but again, it’s not always easy.
The good
- It’s cheaper
- You can do it from home, for the most part, on your own schedule
- You can construct your own path, and tailor it specifically to your desires
- It’s empowering when it works out
Potential drawbacks
- It’s sometimes hard to keep up motivation
- It takes dogged determination to break into existing professional circles
- You have little critique or feedback for your early attempts
- If you’re relying on freelance, you’re rarely sure where the next paycheck is coming from
- It can be lonely
You can do it
Whichever path you choose, it’s important to know that you’ve got to keep your spirits up. As with any career path, there are challenges. There are soul-sucking experiences. You will be demeaned at some point, or at least feel like it.
Be open-minded, too. Sure, when you start out, you’ll have an image in your mind — the fastidious journalist, scrappy and cut-throat and ready for her next big lead; the attentive and obsessed technical writer who becomes a subject matter expert and top in her field; the Thoreau-esque essayist who ponders on the wonders of the natural world.
Allow these images to drive you, to motivate you, but don’t let them pigeonhole you and seduce you away from opportunities. Science and technical writing exist on a spectrum — sometimes it’s the stuff in between in which you’ll find your perfect happy place. That’s where I found mine.
This answers a lot of questions. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain. I think both forms of writing would work me; I suppose it would depend on what field grabs my interest.
Glad to help shed light! Both forms are things I love to do, too – I guess given the whole airline manual days, I still appreciate some good ole documentation. But I still love the WOW factors of science writing. What kinds of technologies/ideas/complexities do you like teaching people about?
I love how your article describe the field in an effortless way. My picayune critique is that you painted technical writing with too broad of a brush. Some of what you talked about in technical writing was actually medical writing or medical regulatory writing. The Lipitor ad is exactly what a sub-set of medical writers do. Medical and technical writing can overlap, but they have separate career paths. I urge people interested in these types of communications careers to get involved with the National Science Writers Association, the American Medical Writer’s Association, and the Society for Technical Communication.
Thanks for stopping by, Caroline. And I agree with 100% – the subsets of technical writing are the clearest differences between what I’ve experienced as “science writing” and “technical writing.” Writing for airlines, as I’ve done, also gets into the legal writing territory, another subset of technical writing with its own unique guidelines and audiences (just kidding – no one reads those)
And you’re dead on – all aspiring professional writers should get on board with these organizations, for sure. Most have a minor cost to join, but consider that an investment, as corny and cliche as that sounds.
Kristina,
I am a pediatrician who gave up her license and immersed in teaching 4 children through high school. The last ten years I taught everything from phonics to Human Anatomy and Physiology, and I had a thorough review of grammar, spelling, Latin and read discussed a number of books. Formerly, I worked in the area of child abuse and foster care as a pediatrician. My interests include nutrition, education, athletics and puberty, foster children, abuse, and sports medicine. Scientific writing, as described, fascinates me. I love to research, explore and dissect ideas. Educating my children continues now as we put them through college, so I am looking of ways to supplement our income. Obviously, an expensive masters program would not work for me. Do you have any insights as to how to break into internships or network into writing opportunities? I saw that some took short writing courses online. Would you recommend that? I want to build up a portfolio, but an unsure how to start…
Thank you for your thoughts. KaG
Hi Karen! First off, you’re amazing for homeschooling, plain and simple. My mother did the same for me through high school, for the reason: “my daughter is argumentative and irritated with all her teachers.” That attitude worked well for college…not so much for high school
Honestly, with your background, one-off writing courses wouldn’t be my first (or even second) recommendation. You’re coming to the table with some fantastic perspectives: your work as a pediatrician and your homeschooling experiences. It’d likely be cheaper to join up with organizations like the ones Caroline mentioned below (particularly the NASW), and arguably, more beneficial.
Do you by any chance have a blog? I can tell you anecdotally but with a rather large sample size that there are lots and lots of parents out there who are curious or leaning toward homeschooling, but are concerned about sciences and math.
A well-fed blog is the tool I’ve seen used most successfully for building portfolios. It takes a little obsession – lots of research, self-editing, social networking, etc, but it’s practically like starting your own publication. No, not practically – that’s exactly what it is.
I may be rambling now – feel free to email me to chat more!
What great advice! I’m halfway through my undergrad career as a Journalism student with an individual concentration in Media Psychology. I’m interested in how media and technology influence cognitive development in young children and society as a whole. I had looked into the MIT program as a post-grad opportunity. Thanks for this!
This is excellent and will be featured on bookofjoe in the near future.
[...] Technical Writing vs. Science Writing – by Kristina Bjoran [...]
Thanks for this interesting breakdown. I work as a Medical Writer which fits firmly in the scientific writing category. I find that there is a lot of overlap between the two, although you have outlined the differences well. Do you think scientific and technical writing require different levels of knowledge of the subject area?
Hi Simon — you know, I go back and forth on this matter, but I think ultimately that subject matter experts are better suited to technical writing (medical writing, for instance). It feels more hit-and-miss with science writers. One of the beautiful things about a curious science writer who knows next to nothing about his subject matter is that he knows all the “dumb questions” to ask. And when the audience is often asking those same types of questions, well, magic is made.
That said, I’ve seen some excellent science writers/communicators who have significant knowledge of their topics-of-choice. Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, and Steve Pinker (love him or hate him), for instance. But for every Carl Sagan, you’ve got a Deborah Blum and Carl Zimmer, to name some popular modern examples…
But you know, technical writing has oft been criticized for its inaccessibility (depending on the audience, of course), so perhaps there’s an evolution in order…
Hi Kristina
Thanks for this article, it was really helpful.
One thing I am struggling with right now is possibly trying to find some sort of science writer internship. I have always loved reading and writing but got my undergrad in environmental science. Upon graduation I realized I didn’t really know what I wanted to do so I tried a few things out (Environmental Education for a year, organic farming for 6 months, and a little bit of museum work) but am still at the same place I was at graduation (research doesn’t seem entirely appealing but I like to learn about loads of stuff). It all seemed interesting at the time and it still does on some level but I wouldn’t want to do any of those full time or go to grad school for them. So now I’m looking at science writing and/or editing. However this is hard since, like you said, many of them are for recent grads. And it doesn’t help that I have hardly any writing experience or english degree.
So basically are there any internships you could recommend that non-recent grads with little english background (but who still like to write and read!) could apply for? I don’t want to get a masters or other higher education if its not something I will actually enjoy but I suspect it could be something I would like.
Also I’m very relieved to hear that you had 7 internships. I’m on my thirdish one (the current one just changed from part time volunteer intern to part time paid) so that is somewhat relieving to hear.
thanks
Rebekah
Hi Rebekah,
First, off, I offer my sincere apologies for the delay in response here. The holiday season always seems to get the best (or the worst?) of my attention span.
From the sound of your experience, you’ve got a leg up on a lot of folks, for sure. But I wore similar shoes before going to grad school–instead of having little “real” writing experience, I had very little “real” science experience. I’d had a bit, but not a lot.
And unfortunately, you’re right about the toughness of attaining a sci-write internship in this climate. There are a ton of these science writing grad programs springing up, and they’re pumping out a lot of trained folks, chomping and gnashing for these internships.
If I’m correct in assuming that your internships are in environmental science-related fields, I’d strongly recommend starting a blog about it. Cover big ideas, write journalistic-style stuff, write essays, write in lots of formats. Edit your stuff, and start interacting in science blog communities. They’re incredibly helpful folks, and are always looking for new talent. And as for the blog, it may be a slower grind, but it’s an easy way to put yourself on par with students coming out of programs–students who write every day about the topics they want to cover.
And then, head to the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) events. They have a SW internship fair that, while kind of intimidating, is so awesome. You get a good handle on the types of internships that you never knew existed. Here’s the link for last year’s event.
While I loved the rich experience that grad school provided, I’m a firm, firm believer that you don’t need it to succeed. It helps, for sure, but it’s not utterly necessary.
If I’m scatterbrained here, feel free to email me at kristina.bjoran [at] gmail. I hope this is helpful in some way
Thanks Kristina! No worries about timing, I kind of figured the holidays might throw one off a bit. You are right in assuming the internships were/are biology/enviro science related (I think I have been pretty good about getting variety). I like your idea about getting more into science blogs, I also recently discovered the volumes of the yearly best science writing, so I’m going to try and read some of those. I’m also looking into a bit of freelance editing/proofreading to get my toes in the water so to speak. My current internship/job at a natural history museum has turned out to be pretty fulfilling so far and I think it is giving me some insight into research. Though I still might be emailing you about science writing in the future if it comes up!
Thanks again.
I enjoyed reading your post. I appreciate how you differentiate between science writing and technical writing. It was difficult for me to truly understand the difference between them until I stumbled across your site. You did an excellent job of breaking down the pros and cons between college grads with degrees and those without. I am a registered nurse (BSN) who loves the pathophysiology behind the disease process, but found that the clinical side of the house has really taken the wind out of my sails. I found that I really love taking the confusing and complicated medical explanations that the doctors give, and turning them into mental pictures that my patients can understand. I enjoy writing, and recently heard about medical writing. I saw that you suggested a blog to Karren Morris. Do you have any other suggestions, and are the certificate courses offered by various organizations worth it for medical writing?
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the kind words! I should say up front that I’d be excited to read essays or posts about disease from a nurse! How intriguing!
You may notice that I recommend that everyone starts a blog. But it depends on the context, for sure. When you say “turning them into mental pictures,” what kind of format/environment do you see this type of writing or communication living in? A blog might not be the best medium for you, in that case.
If it’s patients you want to cater to, often times hospitals, clinics, institutes, and other research facilities solicit material from science writers to do just that: create compelling and informative content for patients and other interested non-scientists.
I might ask, what’s your end goal? If it’s to be a full-time science/medical writer, then, broken-record-alert, a blog would really help to establish your voice and credibility. Certificate courses are hit-or-miss, and are often geared more to the technical side of the scale.
If you’d like to discuss further, feel free to shoot me an email at kristina.bjoran [at] gmail.com
I am a technical writer with over 20 years of experience in the field. I am also a physics junkie. I have read many books written for the layperson but I never really nailed down the styles and techniques the way you did here. It was a fun read and I really learned something brand new.
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