Scientific technical writing is a necessity for a number of companies such as engineering firms, research labs and some software companies. In addition, scientific and technical writers work at publishing companies, online communities, newspapers, marketing and advertising firms and other businesses that must create clear content for a scientific audience.
Unfortunately, finding a good technical scientific writer can be tough. Technical scientific writers must be able to communicate ideas that are highly complex to an audience that is used to seeing writing in a particular, usually more casual, style. In addition, technical scientific writers must include illustrations, equations and formulas to support their writing, which then must withstand scrutiny by the scientific community.
All of this makes scientific and technical writing one of the more challenging forms of written communication. Still, a company that needs scientific writing has a number of options:
- Have the work written in-house. Many commercial scientists are good at doing research, but have little training in scientific and technical writing. Given the scrutiny that scientific writing undergoes, this arrangement can be suboptimal.
- Hire someone with scientific and technical writing training. This person learns your business and performs only scientific and technical writing. However, this arrangement will probably be expensive.
- Engage scientific writing services that can be brought in-house or off-site to write. This carries with it the usual problems of bringing in an outsider: they need time to learn the business and to effectively ramp-up their skills for your particular needs.
Consider the following actions to determine which of these three options are right for you.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Evaluate scientific and technical writing courses or on-the-job training
If you or an employee in your company wants to be a scientific and technical writer, there are a number of educational resources on the Internet. These resources range from online how-to programs to full blown college courses.
I recommend: First, have your employee's skills evaluated to determined how much they know about scientific and technical writing. If the employee has a good command of language, but does not know much about scientific and technical writing, send them to the
Penn State University scientific and technical writing page, which has scientific and technical writing guides and scientific and technical writing examples. If you need more training in scientific and technical writing, consider taking an online course, like
Hurley Write or the
Professional Training Company. Those serious about scientific and technical writing careers should consider attending a university such as the ones listed at
World Wide Learn.
Consider hiring a scientific writing service to provide your scientific and technical writing
You can outsource your scientific and technical writing needs. The company you choose will be responsible for ensuring that the writer is trained and produces a quality product.
I recommend: Use the Internet to find a scientific and technical writing company. Two such companies are
ProEdit and
ProSpring. Start with these companies, but realize that many others exist. Make sure you find a company you can trust to do a good job.
Evaluate freelance scientific and technical writing talent on the Internet
Internet job boards are good places to find freelancers for your scientific and technical writing projects. There are a number of individuals who have experience in whatever scientific or technical field you need, and would be more than happy to take on your project. In addition, some will be willing to consider an offer of full-time employment, which means that you can gauge their talent by giving them a project and, if they perform well, hire them or retain them for an extended period.
I recommend: Use
Guru.com or
Elance.com to look for scientific and technical writers. When interviewing them for the position, ask about their experience and education. Determine which scientific and technical writing courses they have taken, and make sure you get examples of scientific and technical writing they have done.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- A good resource for finding scientific and technical writers is any local university. Science professors tend to write more than commercial research scientists and will have specific knowledge on your topic.
- Scientific and technical writers have different specializations. Some technical writers are skilled at documentation, others at equations and formulas, and others at website copy. If outsourcing, make sure that whoever you hire has specializations that fit your needs.
- If hiring a scientific writing service, try to find one that has scientific and technical writers on staff . Some outsourcing companies will say they have writers on staff, win the job, and then scramble to find resources to do the work. This leads to staffs of varying quality.
The official source of Scientific Technical Writing is
the Scientific Technical Writing page at Business.com
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