As a kid, I was always really good at English. In middle school, I excelled at that portion of our standardized test. It was my highest scored section on the ACT, and I was able to test out of Comp I. I loved English. I’m a good writer, but my strength was spelling and grammar – the rules. Writing was fun, but I was happiest doing editing, finding mistakes and fixing them. Not only that, but knowing the reason why a sentence needed a comma or whether to use a dash vs. a hyphen. This was my niche.
But I didn’t know “technical writing” even existed until I was almost ready to graduate college. All I had ever heard about was majoring in English, and all I could really do with that was teach or be a writer. That may be a great career choice for some people, but I wanted a job that 1) I was good at and enjoyed and 2) could provide financial stability.
Junior year I took a class called Editing for Usage & Style. I was a Spanish major, so this was an elective for me. I was working as a legal assistant at the time and wanted to improve my writing skills. Since the class was outside of my department, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had heard that the professor, Dr. Nahrwold, was tough. She even said so herself (and she was), but I learned so much and she knew everything there is to know about editing. The class was so thorough, and we completed a huge editing project at the end to demonstrate multi-pass editing. Dr. Nahrwold (who is now my portfolio mentor for my master’s program) introduced me to the world of editing and technical writing.
I continued to take courses in rhetoric & writing throughout while I completed my bachelor’s. By graduating, I had enough credits for a minor in Technical Writing, but I didn’t declare it. Graduation was coming up, and I didn’t really have a plan of what I was going to do next. I was sitting in the writing center on campus one evening and, seemingly out of nowhere, Dr. Nahrwold comes in and strikes up a conversation with me. She tells me about the Technical Writing MA program and thinks I would be a good fit. Of course, I only have one week before the next round of applications are reviewed. Being the queen of procrastination that I am, I accept the challenge. I gather my writing samples and write a personal statement.
A few weeks after submitting, I get an email saying I’ve been accepted to the program! I was so excited to be a part of a department where I’d be doing what I love. The Rhetoric & Writing department and the Writing Center have given me awesome internship and job opportunities to build and expand my editing and writing skills. Dr. Nahrwold has been the best mentor and taught me the ins and outs of editing and the workforce, while making sure my skills stay sharp.
All in all, I am so glad to be in the technical writing world and am looking forward to completing my degree. Can’t wait to see what the future holds!
Write On,
Alexandria
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