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Subject:RE: A guide to technical writing from 1908 From:Debbie Hemstreet <D_Hemstreet -at- rambam -dot- health -dot- gov -dot- il> To:'Rick Lippincott' <rjl6955 -at- gmail -dot- com>, Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au> Date:Sun, 4 Jan 2015 14:02:16 +0000
I think people have forgotten that the word "Technical" is not necessarily related to machines. That is a modern usage. The THIRD definition in Webster's reads " having special knowledge especially of how machines work or of how a particular kind of work is done."
If I am going to define Technical Communication as how a particular kind of work is done, seriously folks, the first technical communication is as old as the Bible.... The entire sacrificial system is outlined in incredible detail, and would certaintly qualify... perhaps modern day formatting would even make the details more accessible!
I am working in a hospital and people ask me all the time, "Don't you miss technical communication?" Well, I have to use the TECHNICAL knowledge to publish our journal, and write out detailed instructions for using our manuscript submission system because as much as I like my work, realistically, I won't be here forever.
We do ourselves a disservice when we think our work only applies to machines, computers, and the like!
My two cents worth!
Debbie
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+d_hemstreet=rambam -dot- health -dot- gov -dot- il -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+d_hemstreet=rambam -dot- health -dot- gov -dot- il -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Rick Lippincott
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2015 15:45
To: Stuart Burnfield
Cc: Techwr-l
Subject: Re: A guide to technical writing from 1908
>Is anyone claiming that tech writing started with the computer age, Rick?
Yep.
For starts, all the people who claimed the first tech writer was Robert Champline.
On 1/1/15, Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au> wrote:
>> Another nail in the coffin of the myth that tech writing started
> with
>> the computer age.
>
> Is anyone claiming that tech writing started with the computer age,
> Rick?
>
> It's hard to imagine anyone thinking that, but if so, here's one of
> many sources that would put it to rest:
>
> From Millwrights to Shipwrights to the Twenty-first Century
> Explorations in a History of Technical Communication in the United
> States By R.John Brockmann
>http://www.bookdepository.com/From-Millwrights-Shipwrights-Twenty-firs
> t-Century-RJohn-Brockmann/9781572730762
> This text divides the history of American technical communication into
> three themes: the importance of visual communication (1791-1887); the
> power of genre (1791-1980); and the role of technical communicators as
> innovators within constraints (1948-1954).
> --- Stuart
>
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