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RE: Damnit Jim, I'm a Writer, not a Programmer II: The Wrath of K ahn
Subject:RE: Damnit Jim, I'm a Writer, not a Programmer II: The Wrath of K ahn From:"Cook, Jenise" <jenise -dot- cook-crabbe -at- pacificlife -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 6 Jul 2001 16:21:36 -0700
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Plato [mailto:intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Why then should anybody trust documentation from writers who cannot or will
not learn the technical aspects of their job? Moreover, just grazing the
surface is not enough. If you don't know how things work you cannot
accurately describe how to use them.
========</snip>========
Anne and Andrew, I believe you are both saying the same thing. Andrew's
environment is more on the software and network security side, and Anne's
world is in the financial services' regulatory environment.
How about enjoying the weekend and taking this discussion off the list? I
think the point has been well made by both of you, and you both do agree on
the main point. Technical communicators must "be both" [sic] to an employer.
Gratefully, this listserv of over 4,000 international members includes all
flavors of technical communicators. And, as list members, let's encourage
each other to be excellent in both the technical side of our diverse
industries and in the effective communication side. Actually, I'm glad to
see that the P&P (and other) writers are coming out of lurk mode and
expressing themselves. This will help newbies to see that tech. writers work
in a whole slew of industries, writing all kinds of stuff! (We still need to
hear more from you who work in the medical field.)
Let's mentor those TWs who don't want to read a line of code to discover the
other industries where knowledge of programming languages is not required.
However, if that TW should refuse to understand a bank's regulatory
procedures, for example, then we may be faced with encouraging that person
to select another profession (or, another industry).
Just my dos centavos. I, personally, have made it my goal in 2001 to become
familiar with two programming languages, just because I want to. My job
doesn't require this. I already can tag in HTML, and that whetted my
appetite for more. More. MORE!
Have a good weekend, everyone,
Jenise Cook-Crabbe
<<my opinions only; all mine.
Not my employer's, no, not at all.>>
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