Re: How I Became a Tech. Writer

[John Nesbit <janesbit -at- HOTMAIL -dot- COM>]

 I never set out to become a writer even though my undergraduate degree
was in English with a Rhetoric minor. I was set to become a teacher, so
I endured my first year as an English teacher in Detroit and promptly
went into special education for emotionally disturbed the following
year, and landed a position in that field in Georgia. After 5 years
dealing w/ many weird clients on the job (students and administrators),
I headed west and became an English teacher once again on the Navajo
reservation.
 For 21 years I taught English at Tuba City High School, wearing a
number of hats--class sponsor, chess coach for 13 yrs.(w/ team winning
state title 4 times), department head sentence for 2 years, and
developing a film and media course as well as honors courses in American
Studies & in advanced junior English. The only serious writing I did
during these years was writing an article that was published in Chess
Life, and writing political material for a couple of different local
situations that "my" side ended up winning.
 I get bored with routine tasks, so every year I had some new school
project to work on.  Two years ago our school got hooked to the
Internet.  While I had dabbled with a few computer activities, mostly
word processing, I didn't have the computer bug until we went online.
I went through a natural progression--first getting into email,
searching for information, etc. that first year, but I wasn't satisfied
doing just what I was doing.  So the second year I decided that I would
learn how to make web pages and use them for instructional
purposes--thus, CyberEnglish was born.
 The same time I was developing this course, I knew that it would be my
last year in Tuba City and my last year teaching.  I had reached the
minimum level for Arizona state retirement and had business reasons for
wanting to re-locate to Phoenix.  With my background I wasn't sure what
I was going to do though technical writing crossed my mind; however,
most places were wanting experienced writers and were putting all these
other requirements on the job descriptions, so I wasn't sure if I'd be
doing this or not.  I just figured I'd be "hitting the pavement" during
the summer and find some kind of work to supplement my other incomes.
 Fate intervened in the form of a friend/colleague/neighbor/fellow
political conspirator from Tuba City who had been working on his PhD in
computers in education at Arizona State University and had actually been
employed part time with a startup company named Aries Technologies.  My
friend had been in continual email communication with me and was all
excited about the stuff I was doing in CyberEnglish, saying that he
hadn't found anyone else out there that was doing the kind of things I
was.  We also ended up collaborating on a couple of projects which
helped create activities for my class and also helped him gather
research data for his studies.
 It turns out that Aries Technologies was expanding into a curriculum
development program and needed writers, familiar with computers and with
education to work on this project.  Since my friend was in this field
and was already a trusted part-time employee, guess who he recommended
immediately when they asked him if he knew any other people out there
who could think like him?
 So I didn't have to beat the pavements after all.  It's like going back
to school and doing research papers every day (for pay), learning more
about computers than I ever wanted to know, and continually decifering
technical jargon into relatable English. At times it's satisfying while
other times it's frustrating working with people not in education who
don't understand what will actually work to get a concept across.  I'm
also enjoying working primarily with another cultural group--switching
from the Navajos and Hopis I worked with for over 20 years to Orientals
now.
 While I never set out to be a technical writer, that's my official job
title now & I plan to continue to do this as long as I still need the
added income to pay some bills and eat on.

John Nesbit


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