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Subject:Re: This too is technical communication From:Troy Klukewich <tklukewich -at- sbcglobal -dot- net> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 30 May 2007 09:04:38 -0700 (PDT)
I agree that technical writing has an image problem. To some degree, the field is starting to mature only now as a formal discipline.
I do not believe that the best way to validate our profession is to show where we can add value outside of formal technical writing projects, through marketing, sales, and other kinds of writing. There are many types of writing and those are their own fields, too. In some ways, saying we can write up marketing and other materials because we're writers is a little like saying that any developer can write documentation because they can write. Each is its own field.
I've worked on projects where writers have been pulled off to work on all kinds of deliverables outside of the product. It was always at the expense of product documentation. It also showed how little value the team put on the product documentation itself, which is perhaps a fundamental core image problem right there. Meanwhile, customers were hardly satisfied with the product documentation, thanks to understaffed, misdirected writing teams.
Chis really nails our shared responsibility:
<quote>
Instead of closing ranks to defend this mediocre documentation, technical writers should fight for better documentation.
</quote>
While STC has a mandate to raise the visibility of the technical writing field as a whole, it is up to each and every technical writer to understand and communicate their own value and documentation leadership on the teams that they serve. In my experience, defining our own value is a never-ending series of contextual discoveries. It's a process, not an end point.
I've seen far too many writers taking unthinking direction from misguided developers who do not understand or appreciate the technical writing field as a discipline. Some developers think it is their job to tell us what to do. But most developers don't really know what we do. They have their own ideas based on little, if any involvement with the technical writing field itself. Who can blame them? They work with what they have. The end result is mediocre documentation and increasingly unhappy customers.
It's up to us to set boundaries, give guidance, share our skillful expertise, and educate, educate, educate. Communicating our value in a professional way, especially under the duress of deadlines, takes courage and confidence. I've found with some gentle suggestions here and there, developers quickly realize that I know what I'm talking about and can do a better job at defining documentation deliverables than they can. It's all I do. I should be good at it.
I might add that I also drop quotes from STC's superb publications whenever I can to give validity and background to my points. Whey listeners ask what STC is, I tell them and the education continues.
Troy Klukewich
Information Architect
Oracle
----- Original Message ----
From: Chris Borokowski <athloi -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: Beth Agnew <Beth -dot- Agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca>; TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 8:45:11 AM
Subject: Re: This too is technical communication
Good point, Beth. I'd like to see them informing
people as to what technical writers do and why it's
valuable, or doing so more aggressively. Technical
writers need to make the world aware that technical
writing is a skillset, that not everyone can do it,
and that it is essential to product success.
We've got a public image problem worse than that of
Microsoft... most people have read or skimmed at least
one terribly-written junk manual in the last month,
and they're hopping mad about it. Instead of closing
ranks to defend this mediocre documentation, technical
writers should fight for better documentation.
> This is where
> I think the STC needs
> to start outreach -- publicizing what we do and how
> we can improve all sorts
> of communication, including marketing, financial,
> and institutional.
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