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All you're seeing here is the computer/software part of
the technical writing world catching up with those parts
in which products are made by cutting, welding, soldering
or otherwise assembling physical objects.
Wanting someone to both program and write is a symptom
of the current economic environment. Wanting a writer
who has the knowledge and ability required *to* program is
merely the recognition that anything less was a compromise
in skills required to adjust to a previous economic situation
in which people with that kind of talent were being offered
absurd amounts of money by VC-fueled startups with bad
business models to write about things they knew nothing
about, and that those conditions no longer exist.
>Basically, it is a big step away from the simplistic definition
>(typical in college and university "technical communication"
>majors) of technical writers as "user advocates" who are
>essentially clueless about the technology they are tasked
>to document. That is, the rather unusual argument that
>technical writers should NOT be subject matter experts
>because they are then more able to create documentation
>for typical users is losing its allure.
>The alternate argument--that a technical writer cannot do
>more than a superficial editing of language and syntax
>unless he or she actually understands the technology--
>seems to be rapidly gaining ground.
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