Re: Status of the Technical Writer

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

In the federal government, it pretty much always has been.  The
content of documents in federal agencies is drafted by technical
and field staff, and "technical writers" (if any are used) review, 
edit and update to ensure that documents comply with applicable 
agency and dept-specific requirements.  The "technical" part is 
understanding the *document* requirements (which are usually 
at least as complicated as filling out your income taxes).  Most 
"technology" employed by government is produced by 
private-sector contractors, and the "tehcnological technical 
writing" is done there.

I have no experience with government documentation on the 
state or local levels, but I would expect them to be similar.

Gene Kim-Eng



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lauren" <lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu>

> Has the position of TW really been reduced to a temporary agency type of job
> that is really not very specialized?  I thought that technical writing
> should be in contracts that are written for development and engineering
> projects.  But the development-focused contracts that I have read do not
> include them.

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