My name is Bryant O’Hara but most people call me Jack. I am a Junior honors student at Georgia State University studying to get a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in rhetoric and composition and a minor in Spanish. I am a member of the Society for Technical Communication and am currently studying to take the foundation level knowledge certification exam in technical communication they offer this year. My dream job is to become a technical writer. While taking classes here at Georgia State, I am also trying to explore what industry I would like to work for as a technical writer.

Recently, in my technical writing class I took at GSU, I had the chance to work on my first “real world” technical writing project for the Atlanta based organization Chattahoochee NOW. In short, I was tasked with turning a report of a project currently under development called Vision 53 into a presentation. I have put the presentation I did for their organization in the “Service Learning Project” section of this blog and am ecstatic to help spread their very exciting Vision 53 project, which plans to connect downtown Atlanta with the Chattahoochee river (you can find out more from the presentation.)

I believe the writing skills I am gaining form my English major education along with my foreign language skills will give me an edge in the field of technical writing. I hope to one day be able to combine both skill sets by working for a company that has an international presence, especially in Latin America and being able to one day work in the region.

There are a number of reasons I find technical writing attractive as a career. One of the aspects I find most appealing of the work is that I would get to actually help make something, usually a technical document. I could look back on the documents that I have worked on and feel a sense of accomplishment. For this reason, I would love to be able to write manuals or or on-line help documentation in my future technical writing position. Another reason I am drawn to technical writing is that it is a career with a lot of room for growth. Many technical writers have been promoted or made lateral moves into being senior technical writers, business analysts, copywriters, or even subject matter experts (such as programmers.) There seems to be a lot of prospects for experienced technical writers. I also like that the job deals with technology, and I think it would be exciting to be able to find out about new technologies before the general public does. This leads me to the reason for wanting to be a technical writer that I find most personally fulfilling. I could use my writing to help people. Technical products can be hard to figure out how to use and manuals do not always help very much. I am fascinated with the idea of bridging the gap between the technical/scientific and everyday users. I hope I can make good documentation that will help someone that is struggling with a product.

To wrap up, I think technical writing is a good fit for an outgoing individual, which I like to think of myself as. The communication aspect of technical writing is where my writing experience at Georgia State will come in handy. A lot workplace communication is via writing usually through some sort of technology. Being able to clearly express myself both in writing and orally will be useful in my career as a technical writer, as I will need to communicate with many people including; subject matter experts, design specialists, other technical writers, and (most importantly) the end users of products.