Love.

You have to love transportation. Care for it, be dedicated, loyal, and spend lots of time with transportation.

What I mean is that I’ve come to realize that, to be an excellent transportation writer, its really important to be passionate about transportation and have a good knowledge-base about the discussions going on out there in the industry.

I’ve had to develop an interest in transportation, and while I wouldn’t call it a passion of mine, I do see a lot of valuable and exciting stuff out there. The problem though, is that I’ve been writing for Go! for a year and a half and I feel I am only just beginning to break through and gain an understanding of what’s important and which discussions are worth paying attention to.

For this reason, when considering student writers for next year, I’m urging Go!’s managing editor to consider seeking out transportation engineers that can demonstrate strong writing abilities.

Transportation first. Writing second.

Content is king, right? I think it’s better to have insightful and energetic content with a few grammatical errors than long, dry, academic-oriented stories written by people with no personal stake in the transportation industry.

UPDATE: Several co-workers responded to this write up. A PhD candidate in transportation engineering says simply: “engineers have trouble writing….seriously.” And a technical writer added: “Rhetorical skills first, content expertise second.”

Our communications manager pointed out that while passion is important and it might be ideal to have a transportation engineering student with strong writing skills writing for Go!, that many are looking for research assistantships.