Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What
are the benefits of membership in STC?
What
is required to qualify as a STC student member?
What
are special interest groups (SIGs) and is there a listing of SIGs?
How
many members are there in STC?
What
is the typical salary of technical writers/editors?
How
are job prospects for technical communicators?
What
does someone need to enter the field of technical communication?
What
do technical communicators study?
How
many people work as technical communicators?
What are the benefits
of membership in STC?
STC
seeks to advance the arts and sciences of technical communication, promote
awareness of the latest trends and technology in the field, and provide
innovative services for the education and professional development of its
members. STC also sponsors annual, regional, and local conferences and provides
employment information, scholarships, and grants.
What is required to
qualify as a STC student member?
To
qualify as a student member, one must be enrolled in an accredited college,
university, community college, or technical school and be taking at least two
courses or their equivalent each term.
What are special
interest groups (SIGs) and is there a listing of SIGs?
STC
members may join special interest groups with several professional interests.
Membership may be worldwide, providing a diversity of views, information, and
support. STC currently has more than 20 SIGs. A definition of each SIG and registration
forms are available online at http://www.stc.org/membership/sigInfo01.asp.
The cost for SIG membership is $10 annually.
How many members are
there in STC?
STC
has more than 20,000 members and 153 chapters worldwide. STC is the world's
largest professional association serving the technical communication
profession.
What is the typical
salary of technical writers/editors?
The
median salary for technical writers/editors living in the U.S. is
$60,240.
How are job prospects
for technical communicators?
Job
prospects for technical communicators are good. It's safe to assume that as
technology becomes more and more a part of our daily lives, there will be an
ever-increasing demand for people who can explain this technology in a way that
enables people to use it. This is discussed on the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Web site at www.bls.gov/oco/ocos089.htm (scroll to
the section "Job Outlook").
What does someone
need to enter the field of technical communication?
People
entering the profession should have an aptitude for technical information,
particularly that of the field they plan to work in (computers, medicine,
aerospace, etc.) They should also have excellent communication skills.
STC
also recommends a college degree of some sort, though it is not necessary to
major in technical communication. The degrees held by working technical
communicators vary (see question above).
What do technical
communicators study?
As
part of its 2002 membership survey, STC asked its members what they studied in
college. The seven academic backgrounds most common among technical
communicators were:
English:
32 percent
Technical
Communication: 22 percent
Business
Administration: 10 percent
Computer
Science: 9 percent
Science:
9 percent
Engineering:
8 percent
Journalism:
7 percent
Other:
28 percent
How many people work
as technical communicators?
A
good guess would be more than 100,000 people in the U.S. Unfortunately, there
are no reliable statistics on this. The total membership of STC (see the
question above) does not include everyone working in the profession. We do not
know how many non-members work as technical communicators.
The
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tracks the number of writers in the U.S., but does
not provide a count of the subcategory of technical writer. Thus, technical
writers get lumped in with screenwriters, writers of advertisement copy,
journalists, and others. For this reason, the data provided by the BLS does not
give an accurate count of technical writers.
BLS
gives the total number of all types of writers in the U.S. as 341,000
(go to www.bls.gov/oco/ocos089.htm and scroll
to "Employment"). If one assumes that a least one third of these are
technical writers, this would mean there are more than 100,000 in the U.S.
