Good advice from Scott:

My apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

So, getting into tech writing. Basically all you need is some training so that you know the lingo and of course, writing and editing skills. Here are a few things I would do:

Pick up a copy of "Technical Writing for Dummies" somewhere. I don't ordinarily care for those books but it is a decent introduction and overview for the field.

Check out the website of the Society for Technical Communication, I believe it is stc.com. They publish a magazine as well that may be of interest to you.

Download a copy of Adobe FrameMaker and learn how to use it. It's a pretty standard application for the field, basically like PageMaker but designed for creating books. Also useful would be knowledge of RoboHelp, which is now owned by Macromedia. You may be able to get a trial version from their site.

A handy skill to have is knowledge of Information Mapping, a system for organizing information that is sold to companies and usually involves a Word plug-in thing called Formatting Solutions- download that as well if you can find it, and I will look for my copy to send you. I took the InfoMapping course a few years ago through my last employer and while it is worth taking, it is not the be-all and end-all of tech writing as the InfoMapping people would have you believe. It certainly isn't worth what they charge for their courses. If I can get my copy back from my co-worker, I will send you their course binder shortly. They have a website too, Infomap.com I think.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. To be a tech writer, having some of the experience above and a decent portfolio of writing samples should be all you need. You may want to start by freelancing for any kind of writing you can find, be it local journalism, marketing writing, etc. Introduce yourself to local tech writing companies and explain that you want experience to break into the field and are willing to work cheap (at first) to get a feel for it. They may be able to feed you small writing and editing assignments.

So, hopefully that will help. Let me know if you have any questions.

See you in the September AC!

Scott