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Technical writing to me takes in a lot lot more then software. What about
those of us who work in the financial services or legal area?
Your suggestion is actually an example of a bigger picture.
Question
What industry/industries are making money and flourishing this year?
Answer
IT and anything to do with shares and fundraising.
And of course bubbling on in the background there are always people writing
for the agricultural industry, the health industry, the transport industry,
the mining and energy industries etc Unfortunately the scientific research
area has been sadly neglected here in AUstralia so I don't know if there are
many jobs in that industry in this country.
Perhaps with your new President the military industry is about to boom
again.
Let's face it: shares prices are probably the best indicator of where there
are booms and busts for technical communicators.
The nature of technical writing just happens to be one of my hobby horse as
most people here in the Australian Society for Technical Communications
(NSW) knows. I have fought for years to ensure that this is not forgotten
here.
Of ocurse most of the serious research has been in IT and weapons. I find
that some people who are not in these industries are uninterested in that
research because it is not their subject matter. But the rest of us have
learnt a lot (everything?) from that research and the books written for IT.
My first real tech writing book was Brockman's and I often recommend the Sun
style guide to people outside of software writing.
Regards
Irene Wong
Internet Manager
Australian Securities & Investments Commission
> Tech writing is certainly not what it was when I was in it during the
> Cold War and the frantic building of new weapons. Obviously, the major
> influence today is not that hardware as much as it is software. In the
> opinion of you who are today's tech writers, young ones and old timers,
what
> would you specify as the important capabilities and credentials needed by
> today's candidates for tech writing careers. - Herm
>
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