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At very least, the humility goes a long way in the relationships that
surround working effectively.
That said, I've known writers since at least Writer's Workshop days in
college who have had a very difficult time separating their
personalities from their work. I suspect we are all prone to bruised
egos from time to time. But the people I'm talking about deemed any
critique of their work, however gently phrased and constructive in
intent, as personal attacks on themselves. Conversely, they were so
convinced of the inherent quality of their work that those of us who
failed to fully appreciate every jot and tittle they wrote simply hadn't
attained the stratosphere where they could "get it" and appreciate such
rare craft.
My experience, fortunately, also bears out what others have said, that
this is by far the exception and not the rule.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Robert Lauriston
Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 5:02 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Are tech writers inherently snobby?
I think humility and a lack of egotism regarding one's work are
fundamental requirements for being a good technical writer.
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?
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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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