Definition of Technical Writer

[Jim Barrow]

>Technical writing plus wrote:
>>Jim Barrow said:
>>>Ronald Schwarz wrote:

>>>... to recruit a "senior" technical writer...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.

>>I'm sensing that you've seen resumes that are a little wide of >>the mark regarding tech writing skills...

>Liking more the general kind of response ("your skills, >unfortunately, do not meet our requirements at this time"). 

I think what we're talking about here is Ronald getting a clear definition so that he can give the short answer with conviction.

>This way you don't get into any possible argument/discussion over >the definition of 'technical writer'. 

Well, I certainly didn't think that Ronald intended to read the definition to the applicant that he was in the process of turning down.

>Although there are specific ways of describing what a technical >writer does, in fact the point of the little bit of communication >that goes on when you have to let someone down for a job is >business-related. 

Yup.  And, based on the sources that I cited, Ronald could look at a resume and say, for example, "Gee, Ted, you haven't really done a lot of [insert tech writing skill here] experience.  This is something that we need for our Widget project".

>And a discussion of what constitutes a technical writer should not >be warranted, IMHO.

Absolutely correct.

>Another thing. What happens when you do need to accept one 
>(because that person has the skills) of those who 'have >accomplished all sorts of things' but who don't have a technical >writing background in the strict sense of the term? 

Hmmm...I'm not sure that I would want to hire that person.  Analysts, for example, are great at understanding the big picture, user needs, etc., but some of them can't even write a simple use case.