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Which means writers may have to do what I've been researching and advocating
for awhile: transform ourselves into user support/product design
specialists. I do so little traditional technical writing these days, they
really ought to change my job title. What I do look at (and would love to
start a new thread on), is developing the appropriate form of support for
the task at hand, which could mean various forms of EPSS, on-line help,
on-line docs, "traditional" docs, tutorials, CBT, WBT, and UI design. That
can encompass knowledge management, repositories, version control, and XML
rendering, but it is by no means limited to any one of those components. In
fact it means you have to start with the overall strategy, but most writers
limit themselves to specializing in a few tactics.
I don't get paid to ask SME's questions, design templates, or format
documents--I get paid to produce a quality product that our clients and
their user bases will accept, find helpful, and pay for. If that involves
templates, interviews or formatting, so be it, but it limits your
usefulness, your career track, and your respect factor to think that's all
there is to this technical communications biz.
If we really want to be an integral part of SDLC (or product development for
non-software writers), then we have to stop thinking about documentation and
tech writing as some separate special element, with all sorts of special
considerations that never get addressed in the real world.
Go back to the beginning and ask "What is it, and what are we trying to do
with it?" When you, the engineers, the QA folks, and the marketing gurus
can answer that question the same way, then you can really do some amazing
things.
MTC
Connie P. Giordano
Senior Technical Writer
Advisor Technology Services
A Fidelity Investments Company
704-330-2069 (w)
704-330-2350 (f)
704-957-8450 (c)
connie -dot- giordano -at- fmr -dot- com <mailto:connie -dot- giordano -at- fmr -dot- com>
"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to
do it." - Pablo Picasso
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Levy [mailto:phillevy -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 10:53 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting
Colleagues,
When I suggest that there will be fewer tech writers
in the future, I mean that lots of work tech writers
do adds very little value. For example, doing
research. Yes, seeking information is largely, not
completely, a duplication of someone else's work. I
suggest that someday developers/engineers will not
mind (or will get paid for) storing information so
that a tech writer can find it, such as in an XML
file/template. That way, the search is no longer a
search. The information is all nicely stacked in a
place the writer can get to.
After all, don't we tech writers spend a lot of time
and get paid a lot of money for seeking information
that already exists? It seems fairly absurd to pay for
something twice. The absurdity just hasn't registered
to most companies yet.
This XML or whatever storage place can eventually,
through the work of tech writers, be made readable by
end users. It would be like a functional spec that
became transparent and intuitive enough to be readable
by anyone.
So I'm not saying that tech writers will disappear
altogether, just a high percentage of us.
Phil (techwritingprocess.com)
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