RE: Technical Communication in Manufacturing Industry

["Nuckols, Kenneth M" <Kenneth -dot- Nuckols -at- mybrighthouse -dot- com>]

CB said...

> 
> There is a lot of writing in these companies, but
> the writers go by different names, and may not
> consider themselves writers.
> 

<pre-Friday silliness>

I'm _really_ tempted to say that in some cases the readers of the
documentation wouldn't consider the people who put it together writers
either, but I'll resist.

</pre-Friday silliness>

In all seriousness, every documented manufacturing process and every
product manual accompanying a manufactured product "in the box" was
written by someone "performing the role" of a technical writer.  In some
cases, as in CB's experience, companies expect Engineers to do this task
and some are better than others. 

I daresay there are some companies that give little thought to the need
for documentation specialists until sloppy/faulty documentation causes
problems with product recall, consumer complaints and/or returns, or
legal action (by workers or customers).  Because of the litigious nature
of American culture, I would tend to think companies based in this
country might be more proactive with respect to these concerns than
companies native to developing countries where the culture is not
conditioned to sue at the drop of the hat for every real and perceived
act of negligence or corporate apathy.

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