RE: Non-English tech writer

Subject: RE: Non-English tech writer
From: "Guy K. Haas" <guy -at- hiskeyboard -dot- com>
To: "Humphries, Ola" <Ola -dot- Humphries -at- Energy -dot- Sungard -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:31:25 -0800 (PST)

Technical Writing is still a very young profession in India.

STC has an India chapter but it has fewr than 200 members scattered across
all of the country. Most of the folks doing technical writing are either
English majors who don't have the TECH depth, or engineers who don't have
the WRITING strength.

Indian English has certain grammatical patterns that we view as
non-standard; some are simply UK dialect, not Amurrikan, while others are
flavored by the local mother tongues. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_English, but jump past the
pronunciation part to see the "grammar tweaks" and beyond.

There are some very competent and qualified TWs in India, and they ARE
trying to share their knowledge, but they can only cover just so much
ground. The universities are struggling to establish TW programs, but
meeting with varying degrees of success.

Gurudutt Kamath has been a TW from/in India for over a decade. Here's an
article he posted in 1999: http://www.tc-forum.org/topicspe/sa01tech.htm

See also Rahul Prabhakar's blog posting about the profession at
http://tinyurl.com/ymmpvj and he has another blog with some informative
articles at https://rahulprabhakar.wordpress.com/

--Guy K. Haas
Software Exegete in Silicon Valley
Member of several STC chapters including India,
and of various mailing lists such as TWI (see http://tinyurl.com/y6mkat)



On Tue, December 12, 2006 11:29 am, Humphries, Ola wrote:
> Well, that's a good question. The management looked at several candidates
> and he was the best one they could find. We might all be wondering this as
> writing becomes one of the many skills that management offshores.
>
> BTW, my contract ending was in no way related to this offshoring. I
> retired
> last year and then was drafted for six months to do a special project and
> now it's done.
>
> I used to teach writing and my favorite recommendation was always Strunk
> and
> White's little book The Elements of Style. It's an enjoyable read and
> pleasantly points in the right direction.
>
>
> Ola Humphries * Technical Writer * SunGard * Energy Solutions * 1221
> Lamar,
> Suite 950, Houston, TX, 77010 *
> Tel Office 713-210-8291 * Home 713-864-1553 * Fax 713-210-8004 *
> www.sungard.com/energy
>
>> There are no quick fixes for this situation.
>
> Actually, there is.
>
> Why would someone hire a person to do professional writing if the
> person doesn't even have a suitable grasp of the language?
>
> John Posada
> Senior Technical Writer
>
> "I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never
> actually known what the question is."
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format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
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