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Subject:RE: The 'user' in User Manual From:"Condo, Candis" <ccondo -at- c-cor -dot- com> To:"Lauren" <lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu>, "Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net>, "Techwr-l" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 5 Feb 2007 13:06:53 -0800
I love grammar. I was one of the odd-balls in high school who loved to
go to the blackboard (yes, the boards were black then) and diagram
sentences.
That said, knowing grammar does not make you a writer much less a
technical writer. You can bet I won't be looking at grammar competency
when interviewing tech writing candidates this week.
Candis L. Condo
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+ccondo=c-cor -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+ccondo=c-cor -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Lauren
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 12:13 PM
To: 'Susan W. Gallagher'; 'Techwr-l'
Subject: RE: The 'user' in User Manual
>From Sue Gallagher:
> For a professional writer, grammar is an important tool of
> the trade. If I am interviewing writers and a candidate
> cannot tell me what an imperative sentence is, what passive
> voice is, or why diectic pronouns require clear anticedents,
> they don't get hired. Period. No mater how nice they seem or
> how good their portfolio looks.
These are some odd requirements. Give me an example where knowing "why
diectic pronouns require clear anticedents" is necessary for technical
writing? Show me a passage written by someone that violated this rule
and
the violation was a direct result of not knowing this rule of grammar.
I do
not know the rule and will probably be able to correct the passage
because
good writing is about good writing and not about knowing the rules that
define it. The rules were written after good writing was recognized and
learning the rules will not automatically make a good writer, yet a good
writer will follow the rules and not necessarily know them.
Your claim that you would not hire a person with a good portfolio that
could
not answer grammar questions leads me to believe that you value the
rules of
form over the function of documentation. Can you answer the question
"What
is the function of technical communication?"
I use grammar and I certainly was not trying to say that it is a tool
that I
do not use. But I did not think that my discussion of semantics
required a
scholastic discussion of grammar. I am not familiar with all the terms
of
grammar and it is not required that I should be familiar with these
terms to
discuss semantics or to maintain my professional writing career. A
person
that can define terms and not write according to the rules of those
terms is
not a better candidate than a person that can write according to proper
grammar rules and not define them.
Personally, I would not want to work with a manager that was only
interested
in candidates that can define grammatical terms. I would feel as though
I
was working with someone whose background is in English Literature or
Journalism. Personality types from those areas are good people, but not
really very technology-oriented, from my experience. I have also found
that
editing work from such types is a bit of chore because the documentation
tends to be wordy and vague. Although such people can make excellent
marcom
writers.
Lauren
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
> Behalf Of Susan W. Gallagher
> Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 11:37 AM
> To: Techwr-l
> Subject: RE: The 'user' in User Manual
>
> To my way of thinking, a professional who is unfamiliar with
> the tools of their trade is not much of a professional. A
> chef can tell a ramekin from a french knife; an auto mechanic
> is intimately familiar with both torque wrenches and crescent
> wrenches; a doctor can tell a stethescope from a
> sphignomanometer. If they did not know these things, we would
> certainly wonder about them; their credibility would be in jeopardy.
>
> For a professional writer, grammar is an important tool of
> the trade. If I am interviewing writers and a candidate
> cannot tell me what an imperative sentence is, what passive
> voice is, or why diectic pronouns require clear anticedents,
> they don't get hired. Period. No mater how nice they seem or
> how good their portfolio looks.
>
> Then too, it's a technical writer's job to learn things, and
> most revel in doing so. In my more than 20 years of technical
> writing, I have never encountered a *talented* technical
> writer who wasn't eagerly accepting of new knowledge about
> the tools of the trade or the technology on which they're working.
>
> IMO, a writer who does not know grammar and has no desire to
> learn is a writer without credibility.
>
> My two cents - your mileage may vary.
> -Sue Gallagher
>
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