One Student’s Story of Finding Tech Comm | Technical Communication
June 1, 2022

One Student’s Story of Finding Tech Comm

By Kathleen Sanchez

The field of tech comm has a visibility problem. Many students with an interest in writing, design, and coding start their college careers without even knowing that what tech comm is, let alone that they can major in it. Most tech comm majors learned about the program after taking an introductory tech comm course while studying a different major.

I'm Kathleen Sanchez, a recent graduate of UNT's tech comm program, and this is my story of how I found tech comm.

I first enrolled at UNT as a biomedical engineering major. I was somewhat interested in engineering concepts, but I realized that the major wasn't a good fit after taking advanced math and science courses. I preferred to write the reports instead of solve the equations. At the time, I didn't know that tech comm existed.

After a couple semesters, I needed to fulfill a course requirement for English. I took TECM 2700 Technical Writing because it was a substitute for the English course. Instead of literary writing, it focused on engineering, science, and business subjects. It introduced me to the style of writing technical documents, and I enjoyed it more than previous English classes.

I talked with Dr. Kim Campbell about the Bachelor of Science (BS) degree that the Department of Technical Communication offered. Dr. Kim convinced me that tech comm jobs were in high demand and I could be involved in a technology- or science-related field as a writer. The BS degree allows students to take two technology foundation courses in place of foreign language courses.

I made an advising appointment in the department to look at the undergraduate program. I knew that a career in tech comm was exactly what I wanted to pursue and quickly switched majors.

I first thought tech comm was only about writing and editing documents. However, I found that it involves many different skills and focuses on communication in a variety of areas including user experience, content strategy, and web development. I also enjoyed using software, conducting user research, and learning principles of design in my classes. I chose two computer science courses to complete the BS degree and added basic computer programming to my set of skills.

I'm grateful that I was able to take that first tech comm class which opened a new world of opportunities for writing and merging communication with technology. I hope that more students who are interested in writing for technical topics or STEM-related fields find that the tech comm program is a great option for them.

I am currently a web content developer for the UNT Tech Comm Department. I feel confident that I can build on the foundation I have. I plan to become a technical writer for a technology company to create product documentation or user guides. I'd also like to eventually shift into a UX writing role to write for digital interfaces and get more involved in the UX design process in the future.

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