Re: Sarbanes-Oxley - EGOS
Peter wrote:
But good tech writers don't have egos.
...in an ideal technical writer world, maybe. One consistent refrain I've
encountered with managers and in interviews for many years is the topic of
tech writers egos. I've worked on several teams with some super-sized TW
egos. The operative verbs aren't "don't have" but should be "shouldn't
have."
One manager for a software company in Kirkland, WA, told me she had decided
not to hire anymore technical writers because of the problems she'd had with
them, their writing, and their egos. I've wondered if our perception of
ourselves as TW is vastly different from the perspective of our co-workers.
I haven't seen any studies or much discussion on this topic.
Diane
You make a very good point. I don't think we need to do any surveys. In the software industry at least (that's where all my experience comes from) most engineers have really negative attitudes towards tech writers, and with good reason. One the one hand, there's the technically-illiterate English majors who know a zillion rules of grammar and a ton of "creative writing" technique, but have no hope of writing intelligently about the product. On the other hand, there's the self-taught computer "experts" who never admit to being out of their depth. Both could do decent jobs if they could curb their egos a little, but getting them to do so is damned difficult.
But I stand by my phrasing. *Good* tech writers don't have egos. There are simply a lot of bad tech writers out there.
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