Academic Research in TechComm (Was RE: Criticizing Writers - What Would You Have Done?)

Subject: Academic Research in TechComm (Was RE: Criticizing Writers - What Would You Have Done?)
From: Beth Agnew <Beth -dot- Agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 19:22:09 -0500


There's always someone working on something, but I'm not aware of anything
currently that proves our value. It would definitely be worthwhile pursuing.

In my experience, technical writers are often the only people who can put
together the big picture of a product during development because we touch
all the stakeholders -- marketing and sales need info from us that they can
understand, testing and customer support need info we have on potential
problems, and training uses our knowledge as a basis for their training
materials which are in development before the product is ready.

We also often drive a project because of the deadlines we request, such as
code freeze (though most developers don't seem to know what that is, LOL),
upload to website, or go to printer. Our documentation plan is often the
first actual document some departments see about a product and its
deadlines.

And since we talk to just about everyone involved in the product life cycle,
we sometimes are the only people who can give an accurate status report on
it at any given time.

Hmmm, designing a research study about all this could prove to be quite an
accomplishment!

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-118812 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-118812 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]On Behalf Of Phillip
St. James

Is anyone in the tech comm academic arena doing anything significant in this
area currently? Is
something relevant and reliable already available?

Thanks,

-phillip
Palo Alto



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References:
Re: Criticizing Writers - What Would You Have Done?: From: Phillip St. James

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