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Anthony Markatos wrote:
>
> Horace Smith said:
>
> Technical Writer is two words. If you aren't technical, how can you write
> about something technical? .....
>
> Tony Markatos responds:
>
> Easily. The primary thing that a TW has to do is to determine the essential
> end-user tasks accomplished with the product and how all of those tasks
> interrelate. The determination of the interrelationships is especially
> important.
This depends enormously on the type of doc you're writing. What you say is
dead on for a "user guide" type of doc, and utter nonsense for a "reference
manual".
> You may have to know some stuff about technology; however, that is
> secondary.
For a reference manual, it is primary. You need to understand the technology
at least as well as users do, typically much better.
Even for a user guide, you should understand the product, and the technology
behind it, well.
> (In fact, a pretty good manual can often be written without any
> knowledge of the technology employed.)
Occasionally an acceptable end-user guide can be written that way.