TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Faye wondered: <<Throughout my experience as a technical writer, my
education, my professional experiences, and as an amateur cook, who
ever said cook book writers were NOT technical writers?>>
Certainly not me. In a book chapter I published last year, here's how I
defined technical communication: "In fact, it could be argued that any
field that has a recognized body of practice and a language of its own
(a jargon) could be considered "technical". Rather than limiting the
scope of my discussion, I've chosen a broader definition of "technical"
based on the word's Greek roots: techne refers to an "art" that
represents a specific body of practice and comprises its own language
and skills. (This etymology lies at the origin of the phrase "standards
of the art" used in engineering.) Similarly, I've chosen to interpret
the "communication" part of the phrase as any exchange that transfers
information from its originator's head into the minds of an audience
that must transform that information into knowledge or action. The
medium of that change can be graphical or textual or auditory, and it
can be online or on-paper or even oral. ("Oral" media include the work
of those who perform technical training in the workplace, as well as
the work of teachers at all levels in the educational system.)"
<<To be honest, doesn't anyone else remember being taught in college
that a recipe for beer in Aramaic or some such is the first piece of
technical writing?>>
To be honest, I was more involved as a "user" than "student of
technical communication" in that specific context. Never did manage to
read the manual... <g>
<<Just because a lot of us work in the IT field, it doesn't mean we are
the only "technical writers" out there.>>
Indeed, I work primarily as a scientific communicator--with a
specialization in editing English manuscripts written by ESL authors.
About 80% of my clients are from China and Japan, but I work with
people in pretty much every continent except Antarctica, and I imagine
it's only a matter of time before I have clients there too. Much of the
work is very focused on environmental biology, but there are occasional
fascinating excursions into much wider fields (criminology, computing,
economics). The world is wider than many of think, Horation. <g>
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