Re: Source for statistics on the technical writing field

[Elaine Garnet <2egarnet -at- rogers -dot- com>]

Good grief Peter - 27 and a hair pattern? I am 61 and not everyone  
works in the computer field. I am still interested in the stats, John.


On 3-Aug-09, at 9:30 AM, Peter Neilson wrote:

> In my jaundiced opinion almost none of those parameters are useful for
> anything that can or should be done, with the possible exception of
> granting a PhD in a subject that I would prefer to avoid studying.
>
> What does matter is the trend, slightly obvious to those in the field,
> for traditional tech writing to be replaced by "something else."
>
> When the older writers of TECHWR-L started there was more tech writing
> to be done than could possibly be accomplished. Computer-human
> interfaces were atrocious, and if you didn't RTFM, you were sunk. If
> nobody WTFM, you were on your own.
>
> Now the interfaces are decidely better. The Fine Manual, if it even
> exists, is rarely needed. Some "help" systems are even actually  
> helpful.
>
> When the manual is needed, to fulfill a requirement or because the
> humans still need to understand a goodly body of knowledge, it's often
> prepared by people who are not tech writers. (But that happened back  
> in
> our Dark Ages, too.)
>
> The age of tech writers themselves means nearly nothing. I, myself,  
> feel
> I am 27 years old I but have the hair pattern and the experience to  
> have
> accomplished more than can be fitted into five years of career. In the
> wisdom department I combine the mind of a sage and the curiosity of an
> eight-year-old. Or is it the opposite?
>
> Back to the list of statistics. I think the most distressing part is  
> the
> "large corporations" aspect. Which ones? In what phase of their
> operations? Are we comparing apples to oranges, to prunes, or to
> steamboats? The looseness of the parameters suggests the best bet  
> might
> be to state the conclusions desired, and then to select the statistics
> required for support. Is this part of a plan for some massive  
> government
> program?
>
> john rosberg wrote:
>>
>> Tech Writer of the Beast wrote . . . .
>>
>>> I would like to obtain some good statistics on the following:
>>>
>>> Average age?of employed technical writers at large corporations.
>>> Length of time technical writers commonly stay in the field.
>>> Average age of new hires at large corporations and whether it has  
>>> changed since 2000.
>>> Wage declines (or increases) for technical writers at large  
>>> corporations over, say, the last decade or perhaps since 2000.
>>> Decrease in numbers of technical writers at large corporations  
>>> since 2000.
>>> Outsourcing of technical writing positions since 2000, including  
>>> information about the countries to which the jobs are outsourced.
>>> Anyone know what is the best bet for reliable information on such  
>>> things?
>>> ?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I suspect you may receive a little more data if you gave some idea  
>> about the use to which you wil to put this information, and who you  
>> are.
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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help  
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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