Re: How are Technical Writer's Perceived

Subject: Re: How are Technical Writer's Perceived
From: John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 09:08:20 -0800 (PST)

> > I am doing a paper on technical writers and require some input
> from
> > our side of the fence. Basically, the angle is, how do we remove
> > the negative preconceptions that others have about us?

Us? Maybe you, not me.

You know that old joke about 3 blind men come upon an elephant. {part
of it, for the whole thing, check this link:

http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/guides/looking/story22.html

---------
The first blind man reached out and touched the side of the huge
animal. "An elephant is smooth and solid like a wall!" he declared.
"It must be very powerful."

The second blind man put his hand on the elephant's limber trunk. "An
elephant is like a giant snake," he announced.

The third blind man felt the elephant's pointed tusk. "I was right,"
he decided. "This creature is as sharp and deadly as a spear."

The fourth blind man touched one of the elephant's four legs. "What
we have here," he said, "is an extremely large cow."

The fifth blind man felt the elephant's giant ear. "I believe an
elephant is like a huge fan or maybe a magic carpet that can fly over
mountains and treetops," he said.

The sixth blind man gave a tug on the elephant's fuzzy tail. "Why,
this is nothing more than a piece of old rope. Dangerous, indeed," he
scoffed.
-----------

Isn't that what we are doing here, except we're the elephant and the
SMEs are the blind men.

Me, I've never gotten disrespect from a SME or developer..at least
not to my face...(maybe being 240 pounds and lift weights has
something to do with it). I think it is because:

1) I know I cannot do my job without them, and I tell them
2) I know they are as busy as I am, sometimes more, and I let them
know I know this
3) I establish that we're all profesionals and I'll work with them if
they work with me...and if they don't, I'll find someone higher up
that does know this and they'll explain why I'm not getting what thye
company needs.


=====
John Posada, Senior Technical Writer
Current gig ending 4/15
Resume: http://www.tdandw.com/Resume_Posada_022202.doc
mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com, 732-259-2874

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Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: How are Technical Writer's Perceived: From: Joanne Grey

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