By Britney Ashford
This column features the work of individuals currently enrolled in or recently graduated from educational programs in the field. Contributors examine how theories and concepts encountered in their classes can be applied to technical communication practices. To submit a column, email the editor at STAMANTK@ecu.edu.
Are you a student looking for ways to improve your résumé and prepare for entry into the exciting field of technical communication? If so, you’re in luck! I’ve compiled a quick reference guide for technical communication students who seek relevant work experience using the skills they have gained in their degree programs. Also, if you’d like to kill two birds with one stone, I strongly suggest pursuing opportunities that will allow you to work as an advocate and make a positive impact in your community—all while beefing up the “experience” and “volunteer work” sections of your résumé. First, I should start by providing a general definition of what I consider to be “advocacy” work. For the purposes of this quick reference guide, “advocacy” is the act of providing support to an organization whose mission is either to be the voice for those who cannot speak for themselves, to update outdated and/or unjust laws that alienate a particular group, or to educate the general public on issues that require awareness to gain support.
What transferrable skills can be marketed by technical communication students?
Technical communication students have a lot to offer and can prove to be valuable assets to advocacy organizations. Here is a list of what I consider to be the top five transferrable skills from technical communication studies to advocacy work:
- User experience: technical communication students are conditioned to think from the end-user’s perspective and to consider how their decisions will affect others and what they can do to ensure others have what they need when they need it.
- Collaboration: technical communication students are provided with opportunities to participate in cross-functional teams—sometimes including literature, teaching, graphic design, and engineering majors—to complete complex projects.
- Technology: technical communication students are trained and tasked with completing assignments using the tools and resources considered to be the current “industry standard” or “industry trend” in the technical communication field.
- Project management: technical communication students must manage complex projects within the document life-cycle process, such as interviewing, writing, editing, peer review, archival, presentation, publication, and distribution.
- Compliance: technical communication students are groomed to consider compliance issues—such as copyright violations, source validity, plagiarism, etc.—in all aspects of their writing and editing in order to avoid failing grades on class assignments.
How can technical communication students market and apply their transferrable skills?
Technical communication students are often tasked with completing projects where they have the opportunity to work with a real client in search of volunteers. For example, after researching advocacy organizations for a class assignment last semester, I narrowed down my list of potential volunteer opportunities to three based upon my own personal interests and sent an email to each organization’s volunteer point of contact. One organization responded to my inquiry within a few hours, and another responded within a few days. The third organization never responded. I chose to partner with the President of the Alabama Family Rights Association (ALFRA), Kenneth Paschal, in support of the ALFRA mission statement. I assisted with writing, editing, and formatting ALFRA documentation, such as emails, flyers, brochures, and newsletters. I also assisted with paraphrasing and summarizing legal documentation to ensure that the information is easily accessible and understood by the general public. Finally, I conducted usability testing for ALFRA websites, managed ALFRA social media accounts, and attended ALFRA community events, as needed.
The majority of the work that I completed for ALFRA was done remotely as a matter of necessity so that I could balance the combination of my full-time job, full-time graduate coursework, and volunteer workload. Initially, Kenneth and I both had some concerns as to whether or not our partnership would be successful in a virtual work environment. However, I promised to work flexible hours and be diligent in responding to calls and emails in a timely manner. Kenneth emailed assignments to me, reviewed my drafts, made suggestions, asked questions, and requested final quality reviews before publishing via email, web, social media, etc. If you’re worried about balancing a hectic schedule, I highly recommend pursuing remote volunteer opportunities so that you can work from the comfort of your own home.
Conclusion
My relationship with Kenneth functioned similarly to my relationships with my professors at college. Kenneth and I discussed guidelines and expectations regarding work schedule and volume during my interview, much like a student and a professor would in the first class meeting of a semester. Kenneth described his expectations for the volunteer role, and I responded by explaining exactly what I could do to ensure that I would meet or exceed his expectations. In terms of working with the content produced by ALFRA, Kenneth and I followed a peer review process akin to that of essay peer reviews performed in college classrooms. If you’ve had prior exposure to the peer review process in a college classroom, the same general concepts can be applied in a volunteer advocacy role.
Ultimately, I found my partnership with Kenneth to be mutually beneficial, and I think that Kenneth learned just as much from me as I did from him. For example, I gained a better understanding of how local, grassroots movements can impact major legislative decisions, and Kenneth gained a better understanding of how technical communication concepts can be applied in all aspects of ALFRA’s communication efforts—emails, flyers, brochures, newsletters, social media posts, web content, etc. Additionally, I gained valuable experience to add to my résumé, which has already helped me to further advance in my career as a technical communicator.
Further Reading
Cleary, Yvonne, and Madelyn Flammia. 2012. Preparing Technical Communication Students to Function as User Advocates in a Self-Service Society. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 42.3, 305–322.
Jones, Natasha N. 2016. The Technical Communicator as Advocate: Integrating a Social Justice Approach in Technical Communication. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 46.3, 342–361.
Rude, Carolyn D. 2008. Introduction to the Special Issue on Business and Technical Communication in the Public Sphere—Learning to Have Impact. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 22.3, 267–271.
Wickman, Chad. 2014. Wicked Problems in Technical Communication. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 44.1, 23–42.
BRITNEY ASHFORD (britney.a.ashford@gmail.com) serves as a Senior Technical Writer/Editor for a major aerospace and defense company, and she has ten years of combined experience in the aviation, writing, and editing industries.
