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Re: "Surviving the Dying Career of Technical Writing"

Subject: Re: "Surviving the Dying Career of Technical Writing"
From: Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: Rick Lippincott <rjl6955 -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2016 12:54:16 -0700

Champline is often touted as the "first tech writer," but the reality is that he was one of the designers of the system he documented. So he was just another example of a developer who documented. He does, however, get credit in this discussion for being the first person known to have posited that people could be trained to write technical documentation without having to have prior technical knowledge and/or experience.

The most significant part of that timeline for me is that 1951 seems to be the earliest date for an employer advertising to hire someone specifically to be a technical writer.

Gene Kim-Eng


On 3/23/2016 9:20 AM, Rick Lippincott wrote:

Quote:

"Even ancient Egyptian and Greek cultures reveal examples of help documentation."

Thanks Gene! My point exactly. People have been doing what we do for a very very long time.

Unfortunately the article also repeats that old "Joseph Champline was the first tech writer" myth.

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References:
RE: Re: "Surviving the Dying Career of Technical Writing": From: Gene Kim-Eng
Re: "Surviving the Dying Career of Technical Writing": From: Rick Lippincott

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