RE: Single most important tech writer skill?

[Lief Erickson <lerickson -at- mqsoftware -dot- com>]

I wrote: <<I just looked at the results for the "What is the
single most important skill set for technical writers to have?" poll. I was
shocked! 65% of the respondents said Writing/Editing skills are the most
important.>>

Geoff Hart responded: <<Why so shocked? We're writers and editors, thus
writing and editing are by definition our most important skills. In fact,
this is sufficiently
self-evident that it's not really worthy of note.>>

We're technical writers and editors, but that doesn't mean that our most
important skill is writing or editing. Although, I am inclined to agree with
you that analyzing, interpreting, and integrating are part of the writing
process. 

Then I wrote: <<The Minnesota High Tech Association recently published a
report that. ..found for technical communicators was the ability to
analyze/integrate/interpret information was the most important skill.>>

Geoff Hart responded: <<I suspect that they made one mistake in their study
and you made a matching mistake in your assumptions about their report. On
their part, they
neglected the fact that analyzing, interpreting, and integrating are all
what I'd consider part of writing activities. On your part, you  neglected
the fact that "most important" doesn't mean "only important". It's like the
ABCs of first aid: Airway comes first, but that doesn't mean it's more
important than Breathing and Circulation combined just because they come
second and third.>>

I was responding to the scope and wording of the poll query, which asked for
"the most important...." With that said, I think the report authors make it
clear that there are certain "critical tasks." Writing and editing is one of
them. Analyzing, integrating, and interpreting are listed separately and the
respondents of this survey (unanimously) felt that these skills were more
important than writing and editing. (You'll have to ask the report authors
why it's separate.)

Actually, no, I did not make that mistake. In my original message, I wrote,
"The
report does not contend, nor do I, that writing/editing skills are
unimportant, just that it is not the most important." Perhaps I should have
been clearer.

-Lief


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and 
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe.  http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.