Re: An Engineer has infected my young mind!

[Christi <christi -at- sageinst -dot- COM>]

on 5/19/00 3:13 AM, Sybille Sterk wrote:

> Think about it, though, if you are a lone, inexperienced tech writer up
> against a (probably) older confident engineer who tells you what to do, it
> is very difficult to do what you think best. There's nothing wrong with a
> bit of confrontation or saying "stop, no further, this is my business". -
> It's the same when you try and be your own person rather than your parents'
> little one... sometimes it needs a bit of aggression before you can talk to
> one another as adults.
> 
> Generally, I think that tech writing is greatly undervalued, especially by
> programmers who think it's not really necessary, which makes Sierra's
> position even more difficult.
> 
> Hope you see my point.

hi Sybille-

Yeah, I see your point. And we do have to stand up for what we know (or
sometime just think) is better. I just don't like to encourage an
antagonistic relationship. If TWers and engineers can work through initial
differences without the aggression, I think it's all for the better.
Yes, though, sometimes you have to "just say no". =)

I'm actually in a vaguely similar situation. I'm a lone writer. And while
I've got more experience than (it sounds like) Sierra has, I'm only a few
years into the profession. However, the technology that I'm writing about is
new to me. So in the doc that I'm working on now, I want to give the user
more info about why or when to do something, but *everyone* around me says,
No. The users know what they want or need to do. You just need to tell them
how to do it w/ our product. The doc seems to be something between reference
and user guide.

Christi Carew

ps. I want a "wowfabgroovy" account. It sounds wowfabgroovy!

Technical Writer

christi -at- sageinst -dot- com
p. 831-761-6565
f. 831-761-2452

Sage Instruments
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If you can't explain it to an 8-year-old, you don't understand it.
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