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It's not an either or situation. That's my point, but I do believe that the
'view of the industry' is leaning more towards technical skills than english
nuance skills.
Gordon
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gordon -dot- mclean=grahamtechnology -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gordon -dot- mclean=grahamtechnology -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- c
om] On Behalf Of Mary Arrotti
Sent: 01 May 2007 15:34
To: John Posada; Gordon McLean; 'Stuart Burnfield';
techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Information Engineers
It seems like this argument crops up periodically - the ability to write
effectively vs. the ability to understand technical infomation.
I don't understand the perspective of this as an either or situation. I've
worked with technical writers who couldn't write clearly and others who had
difficulty understanding the technology or business they wrote about. In
both instances - the documentation suffered. If you work in a competitive
market - you don't have the luxury of not meeting either skill set - it's
usually expected & required of you.
I have a specialized set of skills - I am not a junior programmer although
I may share many of the same skills. When I lack technical or business
understanding - I can figure out what questions to ask & how to ask them.
So, I can get up to speed & learn things quickly. And every year I work, my
technical skills increase as do my writing skills.
I can write clearly, quickly, effectively and I take pains to verify that
my information is accurate & useful. As technical writers - this is the very
minimum of what we should be doing.
I do not use the word "simply" or other garbage phrases. After many years
of writing & working to improve my writing - this isn't something I have to
think about & that's probably true of many other people on this list. Being
an effective & highly skilled writer who continually works to improve these
skills doesn't automatically confer a lack of technical understanding or
skills.
Just to clarify - I'm not holding grammatically correct writing as the
highest standard that we should meet. It's more important that the info we
write is accurate and meets our users needs. And I'm not saying that there
isn't value to having technical skills.
But there are skills that technical writers should excel at & writing is
obviously one of them.
John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
Is it better to poorly or incorrectly describe a subject and never ue the
word "simply", or to produce content that teaches even the most experienced
CE's in the field and use 10% more words?
---------------------------------
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
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