I used to decline clients who wanted me to write, or polish, technical papers for submission to the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). It was like a weird blind spot, because I work on all other types of technical documents, including white papers and editorial articles for technical journals. This was just a place I did not dare to tread. Was I good enough? Could I handle the formatting? And what about all those references? I guess you could say, I was intimidated (FYI, as a New Yorker, that's rarely the case). It was one thing to teach graduate engineering students at the University of Houston all the mechanics to write such papers, and a totally different experience to actually produce one!
Believing in my own proven philosophy that "good writers can write about anything," I recently took the plunge. Luckily, there was some content already available, but it was not in what I would call "readable" shape. With an audience made up of so many readers that speak English as a second language, it's essential to break down sentences into digestible chunks. The SPE guidelines are even calling for shorter sentences that are easier to understand. A trend I think we can all applaud.
So, I took a deep breath and treated this job like any other...wrapped my brain around the complex topic, so I could explain it in plain English...and went into the zone, where all the magic happens for a writer. With only one round of edits, I'm happy to report that both my client and their customer were very pleased with the results.
Going forward, I will gladly accept SPE paper writing assignments and feel confident it is a new viable niche for me. Calling all engineers: bring it on!!!
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