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Subject:RE: poets as tech writers and programmers From:kathleen wehle <peridot100 -at- earthlink -dot- net> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:00:51 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
I would agree that the person makes all the difference, not the major. No employer wants an employee lacking the heart and motivation to do their job well. Unfortunately, you dont know what people are really like until they're hired.
A degree in English, or journalism, or literature implies you have education, skill and experience in writing English, not techno-jargon only an insider would grasp. You also have the ability to research and investigate matters you do not know well and communicate your findings in a logical, easy to understand format.
If an employer was burned by a non-committed person with a literature degree, naturally, they are biased against people with that major for the forseeable future. The literature major they sacked, in turn, wasted his/her own time not pursuing a true match for his/her interest.
-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeff Hanvey <jewahe -at- comcast -dot- net>
>Sent: Sep 18, 2006 1:18 PM
>To: "Finch, Ted" <tfinch -at- ktech -dot- com>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>Subject: RE: poets as tech writers and programmers
>
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
>From: "Finch, Ted" <tfinch -at- ktech -dot- com>
>>
>> Do you think that poets and fiction writers should not be technical
>> writers? It is Monday I am a little lost
>
>I think it depends on the person.
>
>From what I understand of the history of technical writing, back in the 70's and 80's, most of the documentation was produced by the engineers or programmers for engineers/programmers, so it was basically unusuable by any "normal" person. In the late 80's, companies got hip to the existence of tech writers, and began hiring left and right, offering nice salaries to entice writers to join up. Unfortunately, many people with a degree in literature or the humanties began seeing the field as a way to use their degrees and pay the bills. Many of these people didn't have an interest in technology, so they spent their time making docs look pretty without really paying attention to the content. Gradually, the companies got repeatedly burned and realized they needed to make sure the people they hired could do the job - thus, the emphasis on a technical background and specific software skills in job ads. There is still a strong bias against lit/English/Humanities people being able to t
> o this
> kind of work.
>
>Note that I'm not saying that a humanities background is a bad thing; the real key to being a successful tech writer in an interest in the inner workings of technology, and nothing about literature/humanities directly equate to a disinterest in technology (in fact, I have a bachelor's in English, and the program from which I obtained my Master's degree was heavily lit-based).
>
>
>Jeff
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