Re: Yahoo has no staff tech writers

[Jeff Hanvey <jeff -at- jewahe -dot- net>]

As always, Andrew shows his complete lack of respect for his own profession and for the other technical writers out there.

I'm not diminishing his experience: he's obviously been burned by writers in the past, but to make the sweeping generalization that most TW's are unwilling to learn their field is simply incorrect.

Of course, this completely goes against Andrew's assumption that everyone is lazy, and no one really cares about work any - all they want is a paycheck, and they'll take the path of least resistance to get it.

Unfortunately, Andrew does not realize that *most* people do not really live in Dilbertland or have Dilbert ideology. We are hard-working, conscientious people who do what is necessary to get the job done. If that means learning technical information, then so be it.

I think the main problem Andrew has had is that he has encountered writers who are fairly fresh out of academia. Yes, these people *don't* necessarily realize what the technical writing profession is in reality, simply because most TW programs stress writing and tools over technology. But, then, how can these programs stress technology? Especially since "technology" is so varied - can you really cover writing for engineering, networking, academics, manufacturing, software development, marketing, and the myriad of other fields tech writers support? Should tech writing programs *require* a double major - one in English/communications and the other in something technical? 

You also have to remember that most universities are not built on the same philosophy that the general population uses. People want training for jobs, but schools want to give people an education. These are not necessarily the same thing (it is, in fact, the old theory versus practice debate). 

These are major strains on technical writing as a field - it is one of the ultimate "practical" fields, so it doesn't fit neatly into any one cirriculum at the university level.

The reality of technical writing is threefold:

1. Technical knowledge (but not necessarily technical mastery)
2. Tools knowledge
3. Writing ability

Lack of *any* of the three will cause the writer to struggle endlessly in the field. We're already seeing the results: specific job descriptions, quick dismissal of people without specific knowledge, et cetera

Moreover, it is the writer's job to stress more than the average person over grammar - after all, s/he needs to make sure the language is accessible to his/her audience. There are times when TW's must worry about these things. Similarly, our tools are difficult to use, so we do have to spend time figuring things out and worrying our problem into a solution. That's a part of *any* field.

Technical writing is maturing as a field. As that happens, there are going to be growing pains, including an influx of incompetents. Time will weed them out and change the approach and attitude of those going into the field. Hopefully, time will change Andrew's attitude as well. I'll not be holding my breath, though.

--- Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>Many firms simply are having a hard time justifying tech writers on staff. This
>is largely due in part to the overwhelming incompetence in the tech writing
>profession. Why pay a person a big salary when they refuse to learn the
>technologies of their own employer? When they spend night and day obsessively
>masticating over the most pointless minutia of grammar and FrameMaker and totally
>ignoring the worthless content they are generating. When writers eat up months
>and months of work building elaborate single-source systems that produce crap.

_____________________________________________________________
Jeff Hanvey: http://www.jewahe.net

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