Comparing the four readings

The first reading, STC's "A Career in Technical Communication" , talks about every type of career involved in technical writing. It also discusses a point I made about having to take an engineering document and transform it into something that non-technical people can understand. It is more of a persuasive document to let people know how interesting technical writing can be.

The second reading, Department of Labor, talks about the differences between a writer, an editor and a technical writer. It talks about how technical writers have the advantage in a technology advancing world. This article, like the first one, talks about how the technical writer must translate a technical document into one that non-technical people can understand, such as an online help document, manuals or many other similar documents.

The third reading, What is Technical Communication?, does not work.

The fourth reading, Improving your Technical Writing , talks more about how to improve your technical writing while the other articles talked about the skills and opportunities that are within the field. I would say that this document is the most helpful if one was looking to improve their writing. If one wanted to know what technical writing was all about, they should read the other articles. This article makes the point of keeping things "short and sweet.” The article also makes the point that I mentioned about the importance of writing to your reader. For example, if engineers comprise most of your audience, then one could use engineering terms and probably make the paper shorter; however, if your audience is comprised of people with a non-technical background, things might have to be worded differently and explained further.