Re: Journalism and Tech Writing

Subject: Re: Journalism and Tech Writing
From: walter -dot- crockett -at- ascentialsoftware -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 11:01:46 -0500




I spent 15 years in journalism before moving to tech writing. I worked for a
daily newspaper for 10 and for a weekly magazine for five years. I think
either field prepares you well for the other.

Since "journalism" is a broad term, let me limit its definition to news
reporting in this case. (I don't think being a television journalist gets
you the same experience, partly because you don't do as much writing and
it's much easier to get people to talk to you when you point a TV camera at
them than when you pull out your reporter's notebook.)

The major advantages of starting with journalism and moving into technical
writing are:
* you know how to get people to warm up to you and start talking
* you know the value of persistence
* you are used to reaching out for information, rather than waiting for it
to come to you
* you know how to put ideas into words quickly
* you have developed a healthy respect for deadlines

To be a successful technical writer, you need the ability to get engineers
and others to give you information. I was warned in technical writing school
that engineers are very hard to deal with. I have not found that to be the
case. If you deal directly with them, make every effort to understand what
they are saying, and do your homework in advance, engineers are easy to get
information from. Engineers, after all, don't have anyone to tell their
stories too. Most of them can't go home at night and explain about the
clever code they wrote. So they actually enjoy talking about this stuff, if
you do your homework first and treat them with respect.

Where technical writing is really different from journalism is that you
frequently have to plunge yourself into extremely difficult material, learn
it in depth, and communicate it in depth. A good technical writer becomes a
lifetime learner of the first rank.

So if you started out as a technical writer and wanted to become a
journalist, you'd have a bunch of transferrable skills too:
* ability to talk to people and get information (though your experience
would be limited to interviewing educated professionals)
* ability to meet deadlines
* ability to learn just about anything and explain it too

That said, would I go back to journalism if it paid as well as technical
writing? I sure would, if I could work for one of those few newspapers with
enlightened management and good principles.

Walter Crockett




----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Journalism and Tech Writing
From: Deepti Rao <rao -dot- deepti -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2004 20:02:45 +0530
X-Message-Number: 3

Hi,
I am currently doing Journalism and have a study paper on the topic -
Journalism and Tech Writing.I know that some list members have made
the transition from a Journalist to a Tech Writer.Would you be willing
to share your experience(s) and throw some light on -

1-How Journalism can be linked to Technical Writing.
2-Can the two be linked at all.
3-What additional skills must aspiring Technical Writers with a
Journalism background have or develop.
4-Can Technical Writing be a form of journalistic writing?If so how.

Will greatly appreciate your views/suggestions.
Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Deepti Rao


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