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Subject:Tech uhh.. What is tech writing? From:"Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- OKWAY -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU> Date:Wed, 10 Mar 1993 09:10:29 CST
Hi folks,
I thought this might come up. I choose the name techwr-l because it
seemed to be a little more intuitive than techco-l or any of the
other possibilities I could think of. (I only had six characters.)
I tried to make amends in the rest of the list name/description, but
I guess I wasn't really clear about it.
I think this list should be for ALL TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION ISSUES.
My working definition (after several late nights debating the nuances
with friends) for technical communication goes something like this:
Technical communication includes communication in all media (video, audio,
print, computer-generated output) which addresses non-fiction issues such as
instruction, description, and documentation. I would also include proposals,
specifications, and almost probably lots of other stuff as technical
communication. I would include academic publishing in natural sciences
in the mix, although probably not publishing in the humanities.
What's more, I would also like to see this list address the academic issues
related to all of the above aspects of technical communication.
Do any of you know of good definitions of technical communication? What
do you think it includes or doesn't? How do you explain to your friends or
boss what a "technical communicator" does?
Eric
ejray -at- okway -dot- okstate -dot- edu
listowner
Philip said:
>Hi!
>My name is Philip Bernick, and I'm a graduate student at New Mexico
>State University--and currently working for NEC Corporation in Tokyo
>Japan. All standard disclaimers apply (don't hold NEC responsible
>for what I say...) Anyway, my question has to do with labels. I
>realize that this is a "technical writing" list, but I'm wondering
>whether the readers of this list make a distinction between technical
>writing, and technical communication, and if so, what that distinction
>is. If you'd rather not post to the list, just email to me and I'll
>summarize later.
