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RE: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting

Subject: RE: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting
From: Bill Buckheit <kcbillb2 -at- kc -dot- rr -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 10:35:18 -0500


Phil,

I don't think that what techwriters do is simply regurgitate or duplicate other people's work. I feel that our task is to ferret out the information that our audience needs and interpret/translate it into a form that the audience can understand and use.

I also don't think that the theory that engineers (or anyone else for that matter) can or will enter everything that they know about a subject into some mythical database is ever going to happen in the real world.

Engineers have their niche, so do techwriters. Neither one is going to go away anytime soon.

Just my .02

Bill Buckheit
kcbillb2 -at- kc -dot- rr -dot- com

"Everywhere I go, I'm asked if the universities stifle
writers.
My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them." -Flannery
O'Connor


At 09:52 AM 4/24/02, Phil Levy wrote:

Colleagues,
When I suggest that there will be fewer tech writers
in the future, I mean that lots of work tech writers
do adds very little value. For example, doing
research. Yes, seeking information is largely, not
completely, a duplication of someone else's work. I
suggest that someday developers/engineers will not
mind (or will get paid for) storing information so
that a tech writer can find it, such as in an XML
file/template. That way, the search is no longer a
search. The information is all nicely stacked in a
place the writer can get to.



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References:
RE: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting: From: Lisa Wright
RE: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting: From: Phil Levy

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