Re: I am curious

[Andrew Plato <aplato -at- EASYSTREET -dot- COM>]

<<<WARNING, This message contains satirical humor at the expense of the
technical communications profession.  It is intended to be a bright ray of
flippant jocularity in an otherwise dreary, pathetic, scandal riddled
work-a-day-world.  Those who have had their sense of humor removed due to
overexposure to upper management or dioxin are encouraged not to read this
message.  If you find this material offensive, please go punch a tree --
it's just a joke, sheesh.>>>

What does a tech writer do...

Obsess over insignificant details.
 "Is that TWO blank spaces or ONE!  Everyone knows that the Textual
Convention of 1972 clearly states that 'thou shalt not use two blank
spaces'. "

Grow a very large, flabby butt.  Technical writing rarely involves the need
to dash from 0 to 60 in 8 seconds, or lift heavy loads.

Dwell on the mundane.  "Have you ever wondered about the exquisite beauty of
the comma?"

Find new and original excuses to why the old technology is better than the
new technology.
"If a 9600 baud modem is good enough for the Martian rover, it is what
everyone should use.  Those fancy 33, 600 modems just can't beat the rugged
reliability of my ol' workhorse 9600 baud modem."

Occasionally find the time to write something.  Usually this involves
copying, pasting, and changing the font of some email text using a $1500
copy of BlatherMaster 98 or WordFlanker, Release 2.2.1.2.4 for Linux.

Tell everyone about the book he/she is writing.  Typically this book
involves the spiritual ruminations of a "technical communications
professional" over the nature of God, the cruel arm of fate, or the
ingredients of mayonnaise.

Debate which type of generic spaghetti sauce to use for the Saltine Pizza
experiment he/she will conduct tonight for dinner.

Have long, wandering conversations with project managers about things like
"scope", "resource staffing" or "condoms that break under normal usage."

Sit in on engineering meetings where the engineers take 4 1/2 hours to agree
to use Arial instead of Helvetica for the font on the screen. Then they take
23 seconds to spec the product.

And finally, the last thing technical writers do -- bide their time until
someone in technical publications management dies or goes completely insane.

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry O. Simmons <larry22 -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.techwr-l
Date: Thursday, January 29, 1998 12:31 PM
Subject: I am curious


>I've just finished a master of education Instructional Technology
>program and a recruiter informed me about the merits of and the need for
>good technical writers.  There is some cross over in both fields in that
>instructional systems designers sometimes create user guides which I
>believe technical writers also do.  Instructional systems designers -
>ISD also use a systematic process to gather the data to write training
>material.  However, I'm trying to understand exactly what I tech writer
>does, how they do it and how does one get into tech writing.
>
>Thanks,
>Larry O. Simmons
>
>--
>SIMMONS HUMAN RESOURCE - Performance Consulting Firm
>Larry O. Simmons, M.Ed.
>1321 Orleans
>Suite 1808 West Tower
>Detroit, MI  48207
>313.345.5354 / Fax: 313.345.1594
>&
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>http://members.tripod.com/~larry22/shrhome-2.html
>http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Park/9327/resume.html
>«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>+  "One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown    +
>+  is the belief that one's work is terribly important..."  +
>+  -Bertrand Russell.                                       +
>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>