Re: R-E-S-P-E-C-T me! (Please!)?
I've worked in one-person doc departments (like right now) and huge doc
departments. And while personal charisma can and often does establish a
more respectful working relationship BETWEEN you and the SME, my point
remains as-is: For the most part, the tech com profession is generally
NOT held in high regard by those outside the profession. And for every
anecdote about how you or you or even you overcame this problem, I or
any number of others can tell their horror stories to the contrary.
Yet programmers and equipment designers routinely circumvent or forget
to update the tech pubs person about important info that COULD affect
someone's life. So the operational documentation is wrong, so what?
Well, the author gets called in after it hits the streets, he or she
explains the latest info was all he or she had to work with and there
was no mention of updated info about to be released. Harsh feelings
abound, efforts are made (and sometimes succeed) to keep this from
happening again, but it will -- by yet another SME.
We''l have to agree to disagree. People aren't turned off to a
profession. People ARE turned off due to past experiences. If they've
worked with writers who are, to them (or to us all), clueless or
non-productive, of course they're going to hold other writers in low
regard.
It's not about charisma. It's about getting good quality stuff done on
time and being a strong team leader, not just a team player. While
most writers I've worked with claim they are strong team players, more
often than not I hear issues being voiced as "I need" in one way or
another. And as we all know, there's no I in TEAM. ;-)
I also disagree on the grounds that despite there being an aire of
avoidance toward tech writers, I have never been in a situation where
I was not able to integrate myself into the heart of my project teams.
I'd like to think that it was due to being a strong team leader, and
not due to some magical charismatic qualities or special cologne
ingredients. ;-)
--
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
"I see your OOO message and raise you a clue."
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References:
R-E-S-P-E-C-T me! (Please!)?: From: Geoff Hart
RE: R-E-S-P-E-C-T me! (Please!)?: From: Poshedly, Ken
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