Pay it Forward

Thursday, I’ll be speaking at a college class about technical editing. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I feel an obligation to my field to pay forward the gift my career has given me. I was one of the lucky ones. I stumbled onto technical writing. I managed to get beyond what I thought the field was and discovered, for a closet geek like me ,that it was a perfect place to balance my love of writing with my love of helping others. But I don’t want current and future generations of students to perpetuate misconceptions about technical communication. So when I am asked to talk about my job, I usually accept. After all, it’s not a hard talk when you speak from experience and a genuine love for the field.

Thursday’s talk is at Atlantic Armstrong State University in Savannah, GA. A connection from grad school created this opportunity. Although the unfun part happens today and tomorrow – creating the dreaded PowerPoint. I’ve tried presentations without PowerPoint but discovered for their sanity and mine we needed something to look at while I talked (and talked) for an hour. Have I ever said I can really talk a lot? Well you should know that by the name of my other blog.

So loquaciousness aside (like my scrabble word?), I’m really looking forward to talking about what I do with students. Invariably it always reminds me just how lucky I am and why I love what I do. How do you pay it forward?