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RE: Is technical writing a sellout or fallback career?
Subject:RE: Is technical writing a sellout or fallback career? From:Technical Writer <tekwrytr -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:32:34 -0400
Labeling--as Korzybski pointed out--is not always rational behavior. It may be comforting to define your work as TW, BA, or some other category, but it is not always wise to do so.
"Technology" is a big field. Many programmers discovered TW after the dot.com bust as a nice filler between programming gigs. However, a lot of "new" TWs understand that programming and TW have a lot in common; writing clear instructions to humans is not fundamentally different than writing clear instructions to a computer.
The old days of English and journalism majors dominating the field are fading rapidly. In the part of the country I work, vendor certification in Java, Oracle, or Unix is considered a sign of someone interested in technology, interested in furthering his or her job skills, and capable of discussing topics with SMEs as equals. All VERY big pluses. Similar situations exist in non-computer fields such as biotech, medical, insurance, finance, etc. Knowledge in the field you are working in is considered mandatory.
The myth of "we need not worry our pretty little heads about this, because we are user advocates, not SMEs, and the typical user is not too bright" is--thankfully--diminishing. That is, while skill in reducing complexity to manageable chunks is still as useful as ever, more TWs seem to be writing for increasingly technical audiences. Subject matter expertise is becoming as necessary for a TW as for a SME.
The BA field (if one can actually be found) is based on the disconnect between business and IT; the business people lack technical skills and the IT people are clueless about business. If your TW position happens to be labeled BA, the more business skills you acquire (up to and including an MBA, if you feel so inclined), the better prepared you will be to excel at your job. That is fundamentally different than being a wannabe MBA or programmer or whatever; it is adding extra dimensions of competency to your skill set.
tekwrytrhttp://www.tekwrytrs.com/ - Contract business analysis and solutions development in Visual Basic .NET, ASP .NET, SQL Server, and XML. Specializing in cost-effective rapid application development (RAD), prototyping, and service-oriented architecture (SOA) IT solutions for SMBs.
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