Dr. Sarah Egan Warren graduated from the MSTC program in 2000 and now works as an Assistant Professor in Technical Communication at the Institute for Advanced Analytics at NCSU.
Dr. Egan Warren completed her Bachelor of Arts in English. Inspired by the communication elements she discovered during her undergraduate academic and professional work, Dr. Egan Warren continued to the MSTC program and later earned her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership Policy and Human Development, specifically conducting research within the Adult, Workforce, and Continuing Professional Education program at NCSU.
Currently, Dr. Egan Warren teaches ethical data storytelling (both writing and speaking) in her role at the Institute for Advanced Analytics. Dr. Egan Warren also has taught in the professional writing and industrial engineering programs at NC State, worked for SAS, and done consulting for external clients, among other work.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity by Brooke Belcher, the 2021-22 TCA Treasurer.
Q: What was your favorite MSTC class or elective?
A: Rhetoric of Science and Technology. I use rhetorical analysis all the time when I’m working with my students on their resumes, cover letters, reports, and presentations. I know that people often want the practical courses. Those application courses are great, but it’s theory classes that are going to stay with you. Tools change, but one of the best skills that you can develop is adaptability. Those theories and the timeless elements of strategies and ideas about persuasion and document design are going to go with you throughout your career.
Q: How does your current professional position intersect with both technical communication and other fields of work, like instructional design or usability?
A: Right now, I’m teaching, developing curriculum, and making sure that I’m up to date on new tools and new techniques. But I’m using a lot from what we talked about in the technical communication program about the rhetoric of science, persuasion, ethos, logos, pathos, document design, purpose, and audience analysis on a daily basis.
I also do some industry consulting and those same things are important. Writing a proposal requires attention to document design, audience analysis, purpose, and persuasion. I’m using those every single time I’m communicating with potential clients.
Q: What technical communication skills do you use in your everyday life and work?
A: I’ll re-emphasize the idea about audience analysis. The theory and the practice of doing audience analysis were driven home by what we were doing in the MSTC program, and it is everything. It is what I think about in terms of how I get ready for a class, how I communicate during a staff meeting, how I present information to potential clients, and how I work with other people in interdisciplinary communities across the campus. It’s all about the audience, and if you hold on to that, it makes such a huge difference in how you interact with people and how persuasive you can be with them –in a positive and ethical way, of course.
Q: What do you think are the biggest challenges that technical communicators currently face?
A: Technical communication, whether through writing or speaking, is often the last thing on peoples’ minds. They want to get through the project, they want to build the model, they want to create something, and then they remember: “oh yeah I have to do a presentation or write a summary about that.” My goal is to get people to consider communication from the very beginning, and I think that the biggest challenge is to incorporate communication at every step of a process so it’s not an afterthought.
Q: What do you think are best practices for working with SMEs or technical experts as a communication professional?
A: Speak the vocabulary that your technical experts use. That’s a fine line because you don’t want to become the technical expert yourself. When it becomes so easy for you to understand, you sometimes lose that chance to explain it carefully to a novice audience. You want to make sure that you are speaking their language but also that you’re able to maintain a little bit of an outsider view.
The other thing is to show the benefits of iterative design in drafting and how it’s almost impossible to create a presentation or a document without having multiple revisions. Overall, that can be a powerful tool to get them to incorporate those communication considerations earlier on.
Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of what you do as a technical communicator?
A: The most rewarding thing that I do is to share a skill I have with brilliant people. The students I work with are so smart, and the companies I have done consulting with are experts in their areas, but I have something to share with them to make the work they are doing better and to make it easier for them to get their messages across to their clients, customers, or the public. Also, knowing that they have this brilliant technical idea, concept, or model, I am able to help them communicate that to the people who need to know that information.
Q: What was your biggest mistake or challenge when you were starting out in your field?
A: It’s hard for me to answer because I think I made mistakes all the time, but I reframe them in my head as moments of learning. What I see as our roles as technical communicators is to always be improving and doing iterative design on our own work.
The other thing I’m going to say is that if you’re not making mistakes, it means you are not taking risks, growing, changing, or challenging yourself. If you’re always playing it safe, you’re never going to grow. Embrace those mistakes, acknowledge them, learn from them, move on, and try something else.
Q: What advice do you have for technical communicators entering the field for the first time?
A: Learn and try everything. While you’re in the program, you have access to so many free resources. If you are not looking at the library’s website and going to their workshops, then you are missing out on an amazing opportunity to learn so many tools. Not only are there workshops and resources and videos, but anything that you want you can probably get access to through the library. If you hit a paywall when you see some article you want to read, I can almost guarantee you that the library has access to it or they can find it for you.
You also have access to Linkedin Learning through the library, and it is worth your time. It is a great way to get a general introduction to a variety of tools. One of the key skills as a technical communicator is being able to get up to date quickly on tools and techniques. It does not mean you have to become an expert in every single thing, but knowing a little bit and having that curiosity to figure it out, try things, and make those mistakes is going to help when it comes to that job search.
Q: What skills, knowledge, or abilities do you value most in technical communicators that you either work with or hire?
A: The first is curiosity. I want someone to wonder how something works and have the drive and interest to find out the answer. Also, skills in writing and speaking, but I want to see them applied across the board. I want that curiosity, the skills, tools, and basic strategies that we would expect in technical communication, and I want to see it applied in their application materials, including their resume and cover letter.
Q: Do you have any networking and or career development advice for prospective technical communicators who are job searching either now or in the near future?
A: I think so many people are resistant to networking because they think it feels transactional or fake or it makes them feel awkward. But, it is about building relationships with other people. It’s not “Hey I need a job! Can you give me a job?” It’s “Hey, you do something interesting that I find interesting, and let’s talk about it and have conversations as human beings.” Then, networking becomes a much more fruitful, interesting, and less stressful experience.
What I suggest is to push yourself to go to those networking sessions, look people up on LinkedIn, find something that is a commonality between the two of you, and talk about it. It can be uncomfortable, but everyone who’s at a networking event is there to make connections and meet people, so use that as your excuse to find at least one person that you can talk to, reach out to, and connect with.
Q: As someone who started and witnessed the first Speedcon, why would you recommend MSTC students take part in this conference and why is it relevant to the field?
A: Being part of Speedcon, whether you are a presenter or an organizer or an attendee, is a way to network naturally. You’re hearing people talk about topics related to technical communication that you may be interested in, and that can maybe influence the career direction you’re going in, help you find a job, or just connect you with someone else to talk to about technical communication. With Speedtalks, you can be exposed to a lot of different things quickly, so you could learn four different things in one hour. I have fond memories of my time in technical communication, and I’m thrilled that the TCA and Speedcon still exist and that something I created is still going on and adapting to the needs of the students right now.