RE: When the term "Technical Writer" just doesn't cut it

["Lauren" <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>]

> From: Michael West

> Connie wrote:
> 
> > You have hit it almost squarely, but I don't think of it as 
> logistic as
> much
> > as holistic.  [...]
 
> "Holistic" is bit too new-agey for me.

Maybe "homogenous" would work better for you.   However, "holistic" does
predate "new age" by about 23 years and it means to consider the whole,
rather than its parts.

> One thing I'd like to stress again for the benefit of people 
> new to this
> profession is that a good technical communications solution 
> may or may not
> involve "writing".

Well, no, it doesn't always involve writing; just as other forms of
communication do not involve writing.  In fact, there are forms of
communication, like communicating with one's family, that rarely involve
writing.

> Is that technical writing? Maybe, maybe not -- but a 
> technical writer who
> wants to be recession-proof had better be thinking about playing a
> communications role, not just a writing role.
> 
> Designing and delivering effective communications will get 
> you farther than
> "documenting software" ever will. 

I certainly agree with both of those points.

Lauren



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