Re: Poll: Is technical writing a sellout or fallback career?

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

Tom Johnson wrote:
> For many, I think technical writing is more of a "stumbled-upon" 
> career. "Fallback" implies that it's in the back of people's 
 > minds as an option B.
> 

I suppose so, but on the "sellout" side, one of the
problems with being a dedicated technical communicator
is that the documentation is not the main product.
Therefore, many companies are not as concerned with
its quality as they are with its presence. (Sometimes
I think that with some companies - not mine, I hasten
to add - if they could somehow guarantee that reviewers
would *say* they have good documentation, they wouldn't
really care whether what they were providing actually
helped the user.) If there is a conflict between getting
the product out the door a little bit sooner and making
sure that the documentation is largely accurate and
usable, most companies are understandably going to choose
the earlier ship date. For pride of craftsmanship, therefore,
working in a place like a publishing house where the
documentation is the main product and its quality is of
primary importance is probably preferable but not nearly
as well paid :->

-- Janice

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