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Re: Is tech writing a profession? Are we professionals?
Subject:Re: Is tech writing a profession? Are we professionals? From:"Dana Worley" <dana -at- campbellsci -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 04 Feb 2005 10:11:51 -0700
I suspect that the original issue was a wage and hour thing --
someone is trying to determine if tech writing is an exempt or non-
exempt profession. The best place to start is looking into the FLSA.
This page has several links which might be helpful:
I believe that individual states also have further definition of what
constitutes exempt or non-exempt status.
Years ago when I looked into it, it seems that much was related to
job duties -- does the person work independently, make
independent decisions, is it a repetitive task , etc.
>From my perspective, tech writing is a profession and I am a
professional. I don't think you can say "a tech writer doesn't need
certification or a degree in a certain field; therefore, s/he is not a
professional". I know plenty of engineers who work outside their
discipline (e.g., EE or physics grads who write code) or who don't
have a degree at all but are pretty good tinkerers and so they end up
with professional status.
And as far as how we are regarded by management, that all comes
back, I think, to management's (and others) experience with tech
writers (and this has been discussed extensively on the list). If you
act like a professional and produce professional work, you'll be
treated as such. Conversely, act like a typewriter monkey and you'll
be treated as such as well.
Dana W.
On Thursday, February 03, 2005, Phillip St. James wrote:
> I am curious to know how others in our field categorize themselves.
> Does top management see us as professionals? Are programmer/analysts
> professionals?
>
> I'm simply curious how new and veteran tech writers see themselves
> with respect to being an official or unofficial professional and
> whether it's an important issue to them.
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