Re: Technical writing for finance: one for the Friday files

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

Thanks for following up, I'll try to clarify what my disagreement with 
Geoff Hart is about.

This thread reminds me of the absence in techwr-l discussions, of any 
definition or drawn distinction between technical communication (TC) and 
technical writing (TW).

My perception here is that Geoff recently has made a number of 
generalizations about things I consider to be essentially only TC, yet 
he has extended the generalizations to TW as though no distinctions 
matter. The disgreement erupted when I read the definition he gave for 
TW (paraphrasing, TW deals with subjects that have their own jargon). I 
posted to note the danger destructive reductionism (happens when 
oversimplification results in the omission or breakage of important 
elements. IOW, it is lossy). We've been disagreeing ever since.

I've intended the disagreement to underscore the fact that going from 
generalizations about TC to specifics about TW does not work very well. 
This is as it should be, right? If you're not sure, perhaps this 
definition of TC will help (distilled from reading/re-reading Beth 
Agnew's recent post This Too is Technical Communication):

TC is an abstraction of all jobs where technical communication skills 
are used. I note that TW is much more narrowly defined than TC.

If a summary of my running disagreement with Geoff is possible, I think 
it stems from my posture as TW, and his apparent posture as TC with TW 
pretensions. There are other disagreements and distractions in the 
thread, but I've laid out the conceptual core here.

Thanks for the concern, I appreciate the intervention, on many levels.


--Ned




> There are several definitions of technical writing floating around:
>
> 1 - Writing that explains complex technology to a non-technical audience.
> Example: Science articles in the popular press. But is this technical
> writing if the "tech" is taken out so that the average person can understand
> it?
>
> 2 - Writing that teaches people how to use complex equipment, processes, or
> software. Example: User manuals and so forth. This seems to be technical
> writing.
>
> 3 - Writing that deals with subject matter that is technical in nature and
> that is aimed at a technical audience. Example: Books or articles about
> science, medicine, technology, grammar, archaeology, music theory, history
> of painting, anthropology, and on and on, covering any subject of study that
> exists. This seems to be technical writing.
>
> 4 - Writing that deals with subject matter that is technical in nature and
> that is aimed at a non-technical audience. But is this technical writing?
> Same objection as in the first definition.
>
>
> ----------------------
>
> I would suggest that 1 and 4 are not technical writing, but 2 and 4 are. I
> don't know if this furthers the discussion or not, because I have not seen
> Ned state clearly what the disagreement is.
>
>
> Bonnie Granat
> http://www.GranatEdit.com
>
>
>
>
>
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