Re: Techwriting after the boom

["Michael West" <mbwest -at- removebigpond -dot- net -dot- au>]

Bonnie Granat wrote

> Technical writers are not technical authors. This indictment of technical
> writers for not being technical authors is therefore at its root logically
> unsound.
>
> Everybody's seen bad documentation. In my experience, what made the
> documentation bad was not the technical content being inaccurate. It was the
> ineptitude of the writer.



Interesting. Here in Australia, and I believe
in the UK as well, the terms "technical author"
and "technical writer" have been used
synonymously. But I think I take your point--
the "author" as you are using it has a certain
celebrity status, with a unique perspective on
the world, whereas the "writer" is anonymous,
invisible, impersonal.

With your second point, I agree completely. It is
much easier (for me anyway) to forgive a technical
error or two (this button instead of that button, and
so on) than it is to forgive a writer who seems to have
no idea of how to begin to be helpful, or how to
construct  a  coherent paragraph.

--
MW
Melbourne, Australia




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