TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Are tech writers inherently snobby? From:Wade Courtney <wade -dot- courtney -at- gmail -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:56:36 -0700
I'm only a snob about tequila, coffee, beer, and mexican food
w
On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 2:41 PM, Karen Field Carroll<kfcarroll -at- cox -dot- net> wrote:
> Hello.
> For the second time in two days, I've posted to the list and gotten an
> off-line reply that I thought reeked with arrogance. Each time I wrote back
> and asked for clarification on the tone, because, as I'll be the first to
> tell you, I'm somewhat defensive and tend to read a lot into e-mails, and so
> I wanted to be sure I'm not being my over-protective self. (In today's case,
> the tone was so obvious I'm pretty darn sure it's not just me.) But this is
> such a consistent pattern--I've worked with many writers who thought they
> hung the moon--that I'm starting to wonder if people in our profession
> (including me, because I can definitely be a snob) are prone to being a
> holier-than-thou.
> Any thoughts?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+kfcarroll=cox -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kfcarroll=cox -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
> Gene Kim-Eng
> Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 1:47 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?
>
> I have my doubts about this one. I think control enhancements will still
> keep
> most of the maintenance and repair operations out of the hands of end users,
> and
> the "future enhanced" spinning wheel will do more but require no more user
> skill
> than the old models peoples' grandmothers used to teach them to use. If
> equipment becomes more design-for-service oriented and moves away from
> disposability, the maintenance and repair manuals will still be there, but
> as
> long as the "back to basics" trend doesn't go all the way back to people
> having
> their stuff made locally by village smithies, the people doing the related
> work
> will be providers of repair services. There will always be some people
> techy
> and ambitious enough to want the Sams Photofact book, but most will bring
> their
> stuff to the repair shop or call the traveling fixers the way they used to
> back
> in the days of tube radios and TVs and cars with distributor caps and
> carburetors.
>
> The transition of tech writers' jobs *back* to being more interesting and
> more
> down-to-earth, but requiring more knowledge of what goes on under the
> hood.has
> already been in motion for some time now.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
> When your equipment is solid and meant to last, you'll tend to learn a bit
> about
> how to maintain and fix it, rather than count on throwing it away and
> replacing
> it because a new one /i/s/ used to be cheaper than a repair.
>
>
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> 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/
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as kfcarroll -at- cox -dot- net -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> or visit
>http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/kfcarroll%40cox.net
>
>
> To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.
>
> Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
>http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> 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/
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as wade -dot- courtney -at- gmail -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/wade.courtney%40gmail.com
>
>
> To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.
>
> Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
>http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat
>
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-