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Subject:Re: What is our real area of expertise? From:Tom Murrell <trmurrell -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 11 Dec 2000 12:26:18 -0800 (PST)
--- Thomas Quine <quinet -at- home -dot- com> wrote:
> The client is not hiring you as a subject matter expert - they
> usually have the experts on staff. They need your expertise in
> gathering, sorting, packaging, and delivering information. I think
> that's where you have to focus your studies.
> - Thom
>
> Thom Quine
> www.documen.com
I agree with what you're saying. In fact, your entire post is a fancier
way of saying what I say in interviews: "My job isn't to know much of
anything, but it is to learn it well enough to be able to explain it to
those who need to understand it and, if appropriate, use it.
No one, not even AP, is advocating that a technical writer become an
SME. But I don't think that a good TW can do the job without learning
something about what they're writing about. Sure you flush the details
after the project is over so you can go off and learn something else
for your next project. I look back at the work I've done in other areas
and marvel that I knew that once well enough to write about it
intelligently. I'm probably not as good at 'flushing' as you are; my
hard drive is a little balky when it comes to erasing information. But
I do believe that I knew it well enough to write, rather than edit
other's writings, about the topics, and I could relearn it if I needed to.
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