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Subject:RE: Bubble Your Pleasure, Bubble Your Fun From:"Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 9 Jun 2003 13:42:47 -0400
Diane Evans wrote:
> >...we are back in the normal state of things in which most technical
> >communication is industrial in nature and correspondingly
> requires a depth
> >of industry specific technical expertise.
> Back to the old argument of whether or not specific knowledge is needed.
Not at all. I have always expressed the view that some technical
communication jobs require technical knowledge and some do not. I have
further expressed the opinion that "technical writer" is a job title pure
and simple and that if someone is willing to give you that title then you
are a technical writer.
What I have been talking about recently, in response to someone who asked
about entering the field, is the phenomena that occurred at the height of
the boom produced by the microprocessor revolution in which there were
hundreds of new home/office products that were so new and strange that they
all required extensive documentation. This, I believe, radically changed the
ratio of non-technical to technical jobs. But that bubble has burst, leaving
a flood of non-technical technical writers out of work and making entry into
that part of the field very difficult.
This marked, but temporary, swing in the ratio between the two groups has
colored how the occupation sees itself and led to many of those bitter
arguments that you refer to. All I am arguing is that the ratio has swung
back towards technical and away from non-technical and I believe that
resetting of the ratio will hold for a significant time to come. This does
not mean that there are no jobs for non-technical tech writers, or that
there will be no more home/office products to document. It does mean that
salaries and job openings for non-technical tech writers are very different
from what they were five years ago, and are not likely to return to their
old heights, even when the economy picks up again.
---
Mark Baker
Senior Technical Writer
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com
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