RE: Yahoo has no staff tech writers

["Donald H. White" <whitedh -at- attbi -dot- com>]

>> The reality of technical writing is threefold:
>> 
>> 1. Technical knowledge (but not necessarily technical mastery) 2. 
>> Tools knowledge 3. Writing ability
>
>I disagree:
>
>1. Problem solving ability.
>2. Technical ability (to achieve near-mastery).
>3. Writing ability.
>4. Tools ability.

I really like the information and most opinions communicated across this
list. Occasionally, the reiteration of certain topics is frustratingly
funny.

I am not privy to any decision-making at any level at Yahoo (or most
other places, either). However, one might surmise that Yahoo has no
technical writers on staff because...

Yahoo doesn't want to pay anyone as a full-time employee to provide
technical writing.

As for the ancient and oft-repeated discussion as to what constitutes
technical writing and a technical writer...

Can we imagine the community of fiction writers debating and arguing
over whether or not such a person needs to:

* Know how to build a plot.
* Construct dialog.
* Introduce and resolve conflict.
* Understand and employ the mechanics of the novel, short story, and
essay.
* Research culture, society, economy, and history of the period during
which
  the story occurs.
* Understand and use the alphabet of one's native tongue.
* Employ tools (quill pen, pencil, Parker Jotter, typewriter, computer
  keyboard) in order to record, in the person's native tongue, the
story.

I know people who are technologically superior but who could not write
their way out of a wet paper bag if their lives depended upon it.

I know people who are exceptional writers, but to whom the ON/OFF switch
presents an insurmountable difficulty.

I know people who use tools powerfully, but for whom the terms
'subject,' 'predicate,' and 'voice,' are foreign.

Don White
804.795.2914
whitedh -at- attbi -dot- com



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