RE: The Problem with STC

["Michael West" <mike -dot- west -at- oz -dot- quest -dot- com>]

Andrew Plato writes:

>There is just a lot of poor communicators out there. 

I can hardly improve on that remark, though it is
tempting to try.

Mr Plato's views and mine are almost diametrically 
opposed. He believes that detailed technical
knowledge is an "infinitely" more important element 
in technical communications than core communications 
skills. No-one can question his right to such an 
eccentric opinion, but when someone takes a 
position so radically opposed to the accepted 
wisdom and to mountains of empirical evidence 
to the contrary, he has, as a certain Cuban 
bandleader used to say, a lotta splainin to do.

Expert communicators (technical or otherwise) 
know how to develop an effective strategy for
communicating clearly and successfully on just
about any topic. Conversely, poor communicators
can fail to communicate on any topic, no matter
how much they think they know about it.

If Mr Plato's views were correct, there would be
no need for technical communications at all as
a professional practice. Vendors of technical
products could simply let their engineers educate
their users.

By the way, this has been tried and found 
unworkable.

Mr Plato suggests that "English or language classes
in college and high school" are adequate preparation 
for the "communications" side of technical 
communications, and that all one needs after that is 
in-depth technical knowledge of some small, 
specialized focal area in order to qualify as a 
developer of high-quality end-user assistance 

material.

The fact is, high school and college English classes 
are only a foundation on which professional-level 
communications skills can be built-- in the same 
way that high-school and college classes in 
symbolic logic, mathematics and engineering are a 
only a foundation upon which programming skills can 
be built. 

I've worked with some excellent communicators who 
came from technical backgrounds, but their 
backgrounds were largely incidental to their 
communications skills, and made them no more 
skilled than others who came from education
or journalism. 

Mr Plato has made his views on technical 
communications quite clear. What I can't
figure out is why, given his low opinion of
the field, he is involved with it at all.

-- 
Michael West
Technical Writer
Melbourne, Australia


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