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twriter01 -at- mindspring -dot- com (who apparently has no human-readable name) wrote:
>I just got in a heated discussion, debate, what not, about the purpose or
>necessity of a technical writer--at least that's what I think we were
>discussing.
>My co-worker expressed that most R&D scientists can write good procedures
>themselves, because they had to have been able to write a good thesis for their
>masters or what have you. She concluded that if they were able to write a good
>thesis, they would be able to write a simple procedure. But, I argued if that
>were true, why was I hired to re-write the procedure R&D originated?
(snip some back and forth)
>The whole conversation just made my temp. rise. I felt
>like that old cliche, "Anyone can be a tech writer, they just fix grammar
>and formatting." Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
She probably thinks that musicians get their "Money for Nothing and Chicks
for Free" too ;)
Am I the only one who gets validation from a paycheck? I would worry if
my *management* though that what I do is easy or unnecessary. I guess that
I don't expect people in other departments to understand what I do or how
I do it, beyond how it affects them. They probably wouldn't be interested
in my uninformed opinions about DBAs, testers, programmers, etc., either.
If it is *pertinent*, I'll correct others' misconceptions on the spot:
"Yes, sometimes there is existing documentation that I can clean up and
use, but not in this case. Could we discuss process X for a few minutes?"
"Well, thanks for explaining {blatently obvious process B in a bored tone},
but I understand all that. I just have a few specific, informed questions
about {obscure, complex process C}."
"No, I'm not asking you to drop everything and review a 40 page document. I've
highlighted the few spots where I actually have a technical question."
Those whom you need to respect you usually develop it, in time. Those whom
you don't need to ... who cares? :)
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