Definition of Technical Writer

[Jim Barrow]

>Ronald Schwarz wrote:

>I am attempting to recruit a "senior" technical writer. I am >finding people who respond to my job announcements who have >accomplished all sorts of things and claim to be technical writers >so that they can be hired by my company. 
 
>What is a technical writer? I need a definition so when I turn >someone down I can give a short answer.
 
The responses so far have been...um...quaint.

I'm sensing that you've seen resumes that are a little wide of the mark regarding tech writing skills.  The few times that I've had to hire a tech writer I was inundated with resumes from programmers to analysts.  These were people who had done programming and analysis and *also* documented what they had done.  The projects that they had worked on sounded impressive, but using the word "documentation" in their resumes seemed a bit of a stretch.

The following provide very basic definitions of what a tech writer is/does:

<http://www.mariosalexandrou.com/definition/technical-writer.asp>

<http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=technical+writer&i=52648,00.asp>

<http://www.hyperwrite.com/aspscripts/framer.asp?target=../features/technicalwriter.htm>