Quick answer:Technical writing degrees usually cover documentation design, editing, information architecture and the tools documentation teams run on. Pay is solid at a median of $90,390, growth is close to flat at 0.9%, and trade experience is a genuine advantage here in a way it is not in most office work. Programs, careers and pay are covered below.
What the Coursework Usually Covers
Technical editing - accuracy, consistency, and the discipline of removing everything that is not load-bearing
Document and information design - structure, typography and navigation, so a reader finds the step they need under time pressure
Procedure and instruction writing - the core skill: turning a physical task into a sequence someone can follow without you present
Audience and usability analysis - testing documentation on the people who have to use it, not on the people who wrote it
Content management and single-sourcing - structured authoring, versioning, and publishing one source to several outputs
Visual and multimedia communication - diagrams, callouts, and knowing when an image replaces three paragraphs
Most programs include a portfolio requirement, and the portfolio matters more to employers than the transcript does. Ask each school what its capstone produces and whether the work is yours to show.
Why One Page Covers Both Technical and Professional Writing
Two CIP codes sit behind this page: 23.1303, professional and technical writing, and 23.1301, writing in general. Together, 273 institutions awarded them at bachelor’s level in 2024 (IPEDS Completions, 2024).
Splitting them would produce two thin pages describing the same job market. Employers hiring documentation people do not distinguish between the two majors, the coursework overlaps heavily, and the occupation data underneath is the same pair of SOC codes. So this page carries both, and the school list below is filtered to institutions awarding either code.
It is a different page from Online Marketing Degree, which covers persuasive and promotional writing aimed at buyers, and from Online Training and Development Degree, which covers instructional design for learners rather than documentation for operators. Those three fields borrow tools from each other constantly and are not the same credential or the same job.
At 273 institutions the supply is moderate, and the state, metro and city pages below break that national pool down by location.
Before you request information anywhere, ask what the portfolio requirement produces and get a written transfer evaluation. With those questions ready, compare online technical and professional writing programs enrolling now:
Colleges Offering This Degree
Every school listed is verified in federal IPEDS data both to award this degree and to offer programs that can be completed entirely by distance education at this level. Whether this exact degree is delivered fully online varies by school, so confirm the format before you apply.
How we rank schools – graduation rate, graduate earnings, cost and retention.
Advertising plays no part.
This page lists 10 schools, closest group first, then ordered by
BOC Score with the highest at the top.
10 of them carry a score.
LOCAL RANK
Location / proximity to this page
Defines the local group
Graduation rate how often students finish
30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry whether it paid off
25%
Average net price what students actually pay after aid; lower ranks higher
20%
Retention rate how many come back for year two
15%
Fully online availability whether you can study while working
10%
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal
about the institution rather than about this subject.
Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from
this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
#1
Purdue University-Main Campus
📍
West Lafayette, IN
•In-state option•BOC Score
86.0
TuitionContact school for pricing
Contact
Hovde Hall of Administration West Lafayette, IN 47907-2040
Most office routes treat a trade background as something to explain away. This one does not, and the reason is specific.
A large share of technical documentation describes physical work: installing equipment, servicing it, troubleshooting it, doing it safely. The person writing that documentation has to understand the task well enough to know which step is the one people skip, which warning is the one that matters, and which instruction is technically correct but impossible with the tool in your other hand. Writers who have never done the work reliably miss all three.
The subject-matter side of the job has also grown more valuable, not less. Drafting text is the part of documentation work that automated most readily. Judging whether a procedure is accurate, complete and safe requires knowing the domain, and domain knowledge is exactly what a working tradesperson already has and a writing graduate does not.
The gap to close is the other direction: writing, editing, structure, tooling and review discipline. That is what the degree is for.
Who This Degree Suits
Tradespeople who already write at work. If you have produced service reports, method statements, punch lists or safety documentation and found you were better at it than most people around you, that signal is worth taking seriously.
People who need to move off the tools. Documentation work is sedentary, remote-friendly and does not care about your knees. For readers looking at a body that will not do another twenty years, this is one of the more realistic transitions on the site.
Detail-obsessed people. The work rewards the temperament that checks the torque spec rather than remembering it.
Credit transfer is decided by the receiving institution and genuinely varies, so request a written transfer evaluation before you enroll.
The Flat Projection, Stated Plainly
Technical writing employment is projected to change by 0.9 percent from 2024 to 2034, moving from 56,400 to 56,900, with about 4,500 openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). That is a field holding steady, not expanding.
Two things follow from that, and they pull in opposite directions.
Entry is competitive. With growth this flat, most openings come from turnover rather than new positions. A portfolio and a domain you genuinely know are what separate candidates, which is precisely where a trade background helps.
The pay has held. The median is $90,390 and the 75th percentile is $115,510 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). A flat occupation that pays this well is a different proposition from a flat occupation that pays poorly, and the 2024 median for the same occupation was $91,670, so this is not a field in wage decline.
The practical reading: treat technical writing as a competitive entry into a well-paid stable field, not as a growth bet. Weight the coursework toward tooling, structured authoring and usability, and pair it with a technical domain rather than treating writing as the whole of your value.
Is It Worth It?
The case for is the combination of pay, working conditions and transferability. A median of $90,390 in remote-capable work, in a field where fifteen years of hands-on experience is an asset rather than a footnote, is a rare set of properties for a career change out of a physical trade.
The case against is the size and the flatness of the occupation. 45,500 employed technical writers is a small market by the standards of most pages on this site, about 4,500 openings a year is a modest stream, and a degree alone will not distinguish you in it. What distinguishes people is demonstrable work plus a domain, and if you are not prepared to build the portfolio alongside the coursework, the credential on its own is a weak instrument.
Is college worth it covers the general tradeoff. Individual outcomes may vary.
What These Careers Pay
Technical writers earn a median $90,390 across 45,500 jobs, with employment projected to change by 0.9 percent through 2034 (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
Technical Writing at a Glance
Metric
Detail
Source
Median annual wage
$90,390 ($43.46 per hour)
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Mean annual wage
$96,970
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Wage range
$57,440 (10th pct) - $145,270 (90th pct)
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Employment
45,500 technical writers
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Projected change (2024-34)
0.9%, about 4,500 openings per year
BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34
Typical credential
Bachelor’s, plus a portfolio employers actually read
Program catalogs
Institutions awarding
273
IPEDS Completions, 2024
Geo coverage
State, metro and city pages - see Programs by State below
Site structure
SOC codes covered
27-3042 technical writers; 27-3043 writers and authors
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Technical Writing Against General Writing
Role
Median
75th percentile
Employment
Projected change
Technical writers
$90,390
$115,510
45,500
0.9%
Writers and authors
$76,910
$101,950
47,940
3.6%
All wage and employment figures BLS OEWS, May 2025; growth figures BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34.
The two rows are the argument for specializing. Technical writing pays more at both the median and the 75th percentile than general writing does, on a comparable headcount. The difference is not writing ability. It is that technical documentation requires understanding a subject well enough to be responsible for it, and fewer people can do that.
General writing shows the faster projection at 3.6 percent against 0.9 percent, but a large share of that work is freelance and irregularly paid, which the median does not show. For a reader leaving a salaried trade, the employed technical side is usually the more realistic target.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do technical writers make?
The national median annual wage is $90,390, or $43.46 an hour (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The bottom 10 percent earn $57,440 or less and the top 10 percent earn $145,270 or more, across employment of 45,500.
Is technical writing a growing field?
Barely. Employment is projected to change by 0.9 percent from 2024 to 2034, with about 4,500 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). This page treats that flat projection as the main thing to weigh rather than working around it.
Has AI made technical writing a bad bet?
It has changed what the job is. Drafting boilerplate is the part that automated most easily; deciding what is true, what the procedure actually is and what a reader will misread is not. The flat 0.9 percent projection reflects a field that is being reshaped rather than emptied, and the pay has held at a $90,390 median. Individual outcomes may vary.
How many schools offer this degree?
273 institutions awarded CIP 23.1303 or CIP 23.1301 at bachelor's level in 2024 (IPEDS Completions, 2024). That is a moderate national supply, and the state and metro pages below break it down by location.
Is trade experience actually useful here?
It is one of the few white-collar routes where it is a direct asset. Equipment documentation, service procedures, safety instructions and installation manuals are written for people doing physical work, and writers who have done that work catch errors that writers who have not will publish.
What is the difference between technical writing and general writing careers?
Technical writers earn a median $90,390 across employment of 45,500; writers and authors earn a median $76,910 across employment of 47,940 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The technical side pays more and is more employed rather than freelance, which is the practical difference for someone leaving a salaried trade.
Can this degree be earned fully online?
Yes, straightforwardly. The subject is text, tools and review cycles, with no laboratory or clinical requirement. Distance delivery suits it as well as any field on this site.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 - Technical Writers (SOC 27-3042), Writers and Authors (SOC 27-3043)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2024-34
U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS Completions, 2024 - CIP 23.1303, CIP 23.1301
About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
