TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Can Engineers Write? From:Laura J Valentine <fiend+ -at- CMU -dot- EDU> Date:Sun, 6 Oct 1996 15:48:43 -0400
I'd have to agree that a) people will write to the lowest level of
competency (I saw it in the manual I had to rewrite this summer--my boss
had never seen it, it was managed by the guy immediately under him, who
couldn't tell a period from an interrogation point...) and b) yes,
engineers and other technical people can write.
It seems to me that technical writing, of all the areas of the peculiar
sport we call the written word, requires the most heirarchical and
orderly thinking--something which any competent engineer *has* to be
able to do.
Not to mention the lovely books I grew up on written by physicists and
mathematicians. ;)
--laura
fiend+ -at- cmu -dot- edu -=-=- http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/jacquez/
-=--=- Cthulhu is the Patron Saint of Pittsburgh... -=--=-
Alpha Phi Omega, Kappa Chapter, Carnegie Mellon University
