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Subject:Re: A technique to get on development's good side From:Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 13 May 2005 11:58:44 -0400
> As to the divide between TWers and engineers was it always there?
Nope.
> I know here in the UK TWers were, traditionally,
> engineers/programmers/etc who could write and migrated to TWing. While
> some were 'bad' engineers most were competent and the divide didn't
> exist (or was much les pronounced). There was also a decided lack of TW
> qualifications so there were few going into the profession directly from
> university - they worked in industry and migrated. Almost everywhere
> I've worked so far the tech writers have been classed as part of
> development. In the largest place I worked, where there was a tech pubs
> department, ALL the writers were from a technical background in various
> engineering disciplines.
Historically, Technical Writers have been SMEs (subject matter
experts) of various sorts. I find it interesting that there's a
perception that TWs need *access to* SMEs now, and are not SMEs
themselves.
> There are TC course here in the UK now and a lot more in the US -
> perhaps it because it's seen as being 'academic' without the technical
> grounding and they're only accepted once that grounding has been proved
> by doing the job?
Ding ding. There's one reason. There are many, many others. But it all
comes back to the technical writer working to be a SME. You don'thave
to be able to code the product you're documenting to be a SME. But,
you do need to be able to use it efficiently, know what you should be
using it for, and know why it even exists in the first place.
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