Re: Movie: "The Technical Writer" and personality

["Hemstreet, Deborah" <DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com>]

Hi Tom,
 
I did have an article published via Joann Hackos, but I think its not
longer available on line...
 
I did give a presentation in Israel on the topic in 2007 - the link is:
 
http://stc-israel.org.il/ChapterInfo/2007_Convention/Convention2007_Slid
eshows/IntroversionTurnedInsideOut.ppt
 
This presentation was written with a colleague in the US, but I gave it
myself in Israel. She and I presented together in the STC Convention in
2007 as well.
 
Hope this helps.
 
Deborah


  _____  

	From: Tom Johnson [mailto:tomjohnson1492 -at- gmail -dot- com] 
	Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 12:10 PM
	To: Hemstreet, Deborah
	Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
	Subject: Re: Movie: "The Technical Writer" and personality
	
	
	Deborah, what an interesting topic for a thesis. Is there an
article somewhere that I can access to read more about your findings?
	
	Tom
	
	
	On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Hemstreet, Deborah
<DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com> wrote:
	

		Hi Nancy and all,
		
		I read the reviews... And it sounds to me (without
having watched) that
		it is a caricature of the stereotypical idea of a
technical writer
		(introverted, neurotic and a geek)... But just the
reviews are enough to
		turn me off to the movie.
		
		Having said that, it made me think of my own research a
few years back
		when I was doing my MA in technical communication... My
thesis was on
		the personality characteristics of technical
communicators. It surveyed
		over 220 technical communicators from around the world.
I used a
		validated personality test based on the five-factor
model of personality
		along with a questionnaire about each person's
professional practice,
		and a demographics section.
		
		I mention this, because of the whole issue of the
stereotypical
		introverted technical writer. My findings were the exact
opposite of
		what we would expect to see. The majority of writers
were extroverted.
		When I correlated professional practice to the
personality
		characteristics, it appeared that effectiveness improved
with
		extroversion, with managers being the most extroverted.
The majority of
		introverts were editors (made sense to me), and only a
few rated
		negatively with regards to what the five-factor model
called
		neuroticism. Interestingly, those few writers ranked low
in professional
		practice.
		
		I share this because from the little I know of the
movie, it seems to
		draw on the stereotype that we are all introverted and
neurotic.
		
		Now, it is possible that when compared to others of the
general
		population, we are more introverted (I only compared
technical writers
		to technical writers since it is us I was interested in)
- and I have to
		admit I've met my share of "unusual" technical
writers... But I've met
		doctors and engineers who are just as quirky as we can
be, just quirky
		in different ways.
		
		The majority of technical writers I've worked with and
known tend to be
		far more extroverted than introverted, and all of us
have been quite
		opinionated on a number of issues. But we sure know how
to argue and
		discuss our points, and if given an intelligent reason
to change, I've
		seen colleagues really strive to improve - and quickly.
(My research
		also supported this).
		
		So my guess is that this movie should have flopped -
since if it had
		succeeded, based on what I've read - it would have given
people a skewed
		view of who we are and what we really do.
		
		Anyway, that is just my two cents worth on this first
day of work in
		September of 2008...
		
		Deborah
		
	
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