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Subject:Re: What Are Writing Skills? From:tstorer -at- free -dot- fr To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 22 Feb 2005 11:30:07 -0700
> Just out of curiosity, what is meant by "writing
> skills"? I mean, grammar aside, if the TW knows the
> product and the users, he/she is going to be able to
> write user friendly documentation about it. If not,
> nothing is going to save him/her. Isn't the real need
> analysis skills - not writing skills?
I don't know why you want to divorce the analysis skills a writer needs
from writing skills. How is the writer going to use that analysis if not
to write?
Of course writing skills include learning your subject matter,
understanding the needs of your audience, designing a structure. That's
the kind of thing kids should learn in school when they're taught how to
write essays. (Note that I say "should," not "do" learn in school, alas.)
Writing ungrammatically or clumsily is BAD WRITING. Giving incorrect or
incomplete information is BAD WRITING. Writing a chaotic or inefficiently
structured document is BAD WRITING. Writing in ignorance of audience needs
and expectations is BAD WRITING. The opposite of these things is good
writing and is the product of good writing skills.
The writer who writes clumsily and ungrammatically is a bad writer; these
are not the deepest faults as they can be relatively easily cleaned up.
The writer who cannot communicate information in a coherent, efficient,
targeted way is a bad writer. This is worse than simple bad prose and hard
to fix. The writer who writes in willful or clueless ignorance of the
product or the audience is a bad writer, and the worst of them all since
he or she might as well not have started. However, what each of them lacks
is writing skills.
Of course, it ought to be self-evident that technical writers need
"writing skills," hence unnecessary to mention. But it doesn't make sense,
in my opinion, to dismiss "writing skills" in a writer or assume that any
fool has them. They don't. It's kind of like saying of a cook, "I mean,
vegetable chopping aside, if the chef knows the food and the dinner
guests, isn't the real need meal planning, not cooking?"
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