Re: job title nomenclature on biz cards
The only people who have pigeonholed and degraded tech writers is tech writers
themselves. Over the years, more and more tech writers flooded into the
marketplace refusing to learn the products/technologies they were documenting.
They kept calling themselves technical writers, but in fact they were neither
technical nor could they actually write anything. They were just wordsmiths.
Cleaning up other people's work.
That is what is degrading tech writing. People who claim they are something
they are not. Everytime a person claims to be a tech writer, but is unable to
actually author anything technical, the tech writing profession sinks another
notch lower on the respect-o-meter.
So what about those of us who *are* technical and who *can* write? Those of us who were honing our writing skills ling before we actually decided that we wanted to make this vocation our career (and who chose this vocation as a degree). Those of us who practically eat, drink, and sleep techie stuff to keep our technical skills and knowledge as up-to-date as possible?
I make no claim to be a *shining" example, but I can say that last semester I took an evening course (my own time, my own money) to learn more about web programming (JavaScript, Perl, PHP, mySQL, etc.) in part because a lot of my then-contracts (the few that I managed to find then) were web applications. (I remember one bug I found where I determined that the cause was a problem with a SQL script.) This semester, I was going to take a Java Programming class, in part because where I'm working now, the back end is Java and I'm going to have to write an API doc, so I thought it would be a good idea to brush up. (Unfortunately, the instructor on the first night last night was horrible, just horrible. I'm going to go with my 2nd choice, a VB.Net w/ database class.)
TO be fair, it's not just technical writers. During the dot-com boom, warm bodies flooded into all disciplines, often with little more than a claim of competency, sometimes backed up with a 20-hour certificate. But, for example, sham programmers were weeded out because management could eventually see that their code didn't work. But hey, the tech writer we hired produced a 200-page manual with no spelling errors. Must be good, right? How many companies determined if their documentation worked?
But there are plenty of people in this discipline who are competent in both the "technical" and the "writing" aspects. I've had the good fortune to have worked with a few over the years, and to have corresponded with some (often through this list), and to have found solutions from some when I've needed help with work problems. So just be careful not to paint with too wide a brush.
Eh, it's Friday, and someone tried to run me off a crowded freeway this morning, so I'm feeling a bit cynical. Enjoy your weekend folks.
--
--
Chuck Martin
User Assistance & Experience Engineer
twriter "at" sonic "dot" net www.writeforyou.com
"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me.
The day may come when the courage of Men fail, when we forsake our
friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day!
This day, we fight!"
- Aragorn
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given you."
- Gandalf
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