Re: Second Oldest Profession?

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM>]

Some parts of technical communication must be very old. Typography and
layout (and, before that, illumination) are an obvious example. Policy
and procedure, which is usually lumped in with tech-writing, is also
very old.

However, after doing a bit of genealogy research, it occurs to me that
an immediate ancestor of tech-writing was probably the writing of
sermons and theological tracts in the 18th century. This material was
written for clergy who couldn't or wouldn't write their own material,
and had to be made so that it was easily adaptable. It had to be written
to be delivered orally, so audience-awareness was important. And, as
hard as the idea is to comprehend today, it required a knowledge of a
highly specialized discipline and the ability to put abstract, difficult
subjects simply and clearly. Often, it required a knowledge of printing,
too.

I don't know the exact number, but there must have been several hundred
sermon-writers in Britain at any given time in those two centuries (an
appalling number of which seem to have been my paternal ancestors, but
that's another story). Their status, too, seems to have been very
similar to that of tech-writers today. Many of them made a good living,
but few of them got credit for their work.

I don't know what the missing links were. But, since many sermon-writers
were on the fringe of the C of E, if not actually dissenters, and many
of these kinds of people were the first industrialists and trade
unionists, some of the last sermon-writers might easily have become the
first tech-writers. At the very least, they qualify as ancestors because
they were professional writers of non-fiction.

--
Bruce Byfield (bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com)
Technical Writer / Job Bank Team, STC Canada West Coast Chapter
h: (604) 421-7189

"And you won't see me surrender,
You won't hear me confess,
Cuz you left me with nothing,
But I've worked from less."
--Ani DiFranco

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