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Subject:Re: What do you want to be called? From:Nancy Smith <smithcds -at- ICI -dot- NET> Date:Mon, 16 Aug 1999 16:10:59 -0400
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Technical Writers List; for all Technical
Communication issues
> [mailto:TECHWR-L -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu]On Behalf Of
jane
> Sent: Monday, August 16, 1999 1:56 PM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu
> Subject: Re: What do you want to be called?
I've heard the following used:
-- Information Engineer
-- Knowledgeware Analyst
I have enough trouble explaining what a technical
writer does to people who are not in the high tech
field! I don't need a "fancier" title!
Nancy
>
>
> Hi Lynn
>
> Get me to *talk* about a technology in any sort of
depth, and
> I start to
> fumble and mix my acronyms and end up looking like
the blonde
> that I am. It
> does not help me look good to the macho-man
programmers with
> whom I have to
> work (sure, they're nice, but...). On the other
hand, I get
> to ask all sorts
> of dumb and not-so-dumb questions to get the
information from
> them. The
> technical communication is flowing only one way:
towards me. When I
> communicate technical info, it is exclusively
one-way as
> well: through the
> written word.
>
> As for people changing "tech writer" to "tech
communicator",
> I think that
> the motivation is out of fear that we are being
perceived as
> typists and
> pre-press technicians. I suppose the logic is that
by
> mystifying what we do,
> the more control we have on their perceptions of
us. The only
> way that this
> could actually be close to the truth would be due
to the
> absolute lack of,
> er, perception by other tech worker types. You
know, people
> who haven't read
> a book in five years that didn't have acronyms as
its main characters.
> People who are literal-minded but sometimes not
quite literal
> enough. Funny,
> they also think that the person who wrote the book
would be *just like
> them.*
>
> So obviously, I prefer the term technical WRITER,
because unperceiving
> people are enormously pandered to. Until I do more
than
> write, I'm a writer.
> Up theirs with anything else they think.
>
> BTW, in England, the common term is Technical
Author.
>
> Cheerio,
>
> Jane
>
>
>
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