TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Have to know Programming to be able to write about it? -- NO
Subject:Have to know Programming to be able to write about it? -- NO From:"Beth Agnew" <Beth -dot- Agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 25 Feb 2003 16:10:14 -0800
A student on this list wrote me with a question prompted by discussion
around the Educational Opportunities to Pursue thread. Someone stated that a
writer without programming knowledge is going to be less competent to write
about programming than one who is also a programmer.
The student wondered if it was necessary to take programming in addition to
a technical communication program.
Absolutely not. Any global statement such as "if you don't know X, you can't
write about it" is inherently incorrect. Any good technical communicator can
write competently about any subject. It is part of our profession to rapidly
learn what we need to know about a new technology in order to convey
information about it to our audience. By the same token, we don't need to be
geologists to write about geoscience, or MDs to be able to write about
medicine.
We DO however need the ability to analyze, comprehend, and communicate in
the appropriate way, the necesssary information about that subject. This
means we also need good interviewing skills to elicit information from our
SMEs. We do not need to BE the SMEs.
We need to be continual learners. But that doesn't mean we need to take
formal education or training in every discipline we encounter. Learning
occurs in many ways.
And needless to say, we also need critical thinking skills to evaluate and
question what we read.
--Beth
Beth Agnew
Professor, Technical Communication
Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology
Toronto, ON 416-491-5050 x3133 http://www.agnewcom.com
LAST CHANCE for this steal of a deal! Purchase RoboHelp X3 by February 28
and receive $100 mail-in rebate and FREE WebHelp Merge Module ($339 value)!
RoboHelp, the Industry Standard in Help Authoring, has won over 55 industry
awards. For more information please visit: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.
"RoboHelp X3 is simply remarkable." - George Bell, Techno-Vision Systems
---
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.
