OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Write technical materials, such as equipment manuals, appendices, or operating and maintenance instructions. May assist in layout work.
Highlights
Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($83K): Electrical Engineering
Largest undergraduate program (17.4% of workers): English Language and Literature
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Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Technical writers typically do the following:
- Determine the needs of users of technical documentation
- Study product samples and talk with product designers and developers
- Work with technical staff to make products and instructions easier to use
- Write or revise supporting content for products
- Edit material prepared by other writers or staff
- Incorporate animation, graphs, illustrations, or photographs to increase users’ understanding of the material
- Select appropriate medium, such as manuals or videos, for message or audience
- Standardize content across platforms and media
- Collect user feedback to update and improve content
Technical writers create paper-based and digital operating instructions, how-to manuals, assembly instructions, and “frequently asked questions” pages to help technical support staff, consumers, and other users within a company or an industry. After a product is released, technical writers also may work with product liability specialists and customer-service managers to improve the end-user experience through product design changes.
Technical writers often work with computer hardware engineers, computer support specialists, and software developers to manage the flow of information among project workgroups during development and testing. Therefore, technical writers must be able to understand and discuss complex information with people of diverse occupational backgrounds.
Technical writers may serve on teams that conduct usability studies to improve product design. Technical writers may research topics through visits to libraries and websites, discussions with technical specialists, and observation.
Technical writers are also responsible for managing the consistency of technical content and its use across departments including product development, manufacturing, marketing, and customer relations.
Some technical writers help write grant proposals for research scientists and institutions.
Increasingly, technical information is delivered online and through social media. Technical writers use the interactive technologies of the Web and social media to blend text, graphics, multidimensional images, sound, and video.
Salary
Median salary: $74,650 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $57,960 and $95,690.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for technical writers
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Technical Writers
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of technical writers who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Time Pressure (79%)
- High Conflict Frequency (33%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Technical Writers? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Critical-thinking skills
Technical writers must be able to simplify complex, technical information for colleagues and consumers who have nontechnical backgrounds.
Detail oriented
Technical writers create instructions for others to follow. As a result, they must be precise about every step.
Imagination
Technical writers must think about a procedure or product as if they are someone who does not have technical knowledge.
Teamwork
Technical writers must be able to work well with other writers, designers, editors, illustrators, and the technical workers whose procedure or product they are explaining.
Technical skills
Technical writers must be able to understand complex information. Technical writers may benefit from a background in fields such as engineering or science.
Writing skills
Technical communicators must have excellent writing skills to be able to explain technical information clearly.
Injury and Illness
About 19 technical writers become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 53% of other careers. The most common specific concerns detailed following.
Sprains, strains, tears
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by technical writers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), technical writers typically hold a bachelor's degree.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as technical writers as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for technical writers
Employers generally prefer candidates who have a bachelor’s degree in English or another communications-related subject. Technical writing jobs may require candidates to have both a degree and knowledge of a technical field, such as engineering, computer science, or medicine.
Details: Licensing and certification recommended for technical writers
Some associations, including the Society for Technical Communication, offer certification for technical writers. In addition, the American Medical Writers Association offers extensive continuing education programs and certificates in medical writing. These certificates are available to professionals in the medical and scientific communication fields.
Although not mandatory, these credentials demonstrate competence and professionalism, making candidates more attractive to employers. A professional credential also may increase a technical writer’s opportunities for advancement.
Education level of Technical Writers
About 77% of technical writers have at least a bachelor's degree.
Education attained by technical writers
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Top college degrees
Here are the top college degrees held by the 75% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.
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College majors held by technical writers
This table shows the college majors held by people working as technical writers. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!
Major
Select any title to learn more about that degree
Salary comparison for bachelor's only
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Career salary (tail) versus Career/Major salary (dot)
Does the bachelor's-only salary rise or fall with this major?
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Salary for all workers
For people with this career and major
Median
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Education for Career and Major
Bachelor's
Master's
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The link between degrees and this career
With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as technical writers, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.
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Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Technical Writers per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most technical writers? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as technical writers. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where technical writers earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for technical writers compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for technical writers.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which technical writers earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Technical Writers (ACS)
Employment
10% of Technical writers are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 10% part-time workers, this occupation has a lower percentage of part-time workers than 55% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of technical writers by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Technical writers and gender
With 56% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 69% of careers.
Gender of Technical writers
Men (44%)
Women (56%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median salary for all full-time male workers in the
US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%.
The situation is a little better for technical writers, with the
median salary for men 7%
higher than the median salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Technical writers
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Technical writers.
Race/origin of technical writers
White (84% )
Black (7% )
Asian (7% )
Multiracial (2% )
Other (0% )
Hispanic (0% )
American Indian (0% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
