Re: This too is technical communication

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

I agree with Melissa, and I do see a lot of TW job descriptions that 
include words like versatile and flexible. Employers are free to add it 
on to the description of the person they're seeking, but it is a diffuse 
requirement that can come back to bite the tech writer.

We don't want to become the one they hand the dev meeting minutes to for 
typing and formatting. At least not if they are not willing to invite us 
to the dev team meetings. I've had such employers remind me that my job 
description requires flexibility. They sometimes note that their last 
tech writer didn't attend dev team meetings. Ouch!

Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com



Melissa Nelson wrote:
> "I do not believe that the best way to validate our profession is to show 
> where we can add value outside of formal technical writing projects, through 
> marketing, sales, and other kinds of writing."
>
> While I agree with this on a large scale, I think it varies from position to 
> position. I work in a small office and I am the only technical writer here. 
> If I were to do technical writing alone, I would be part time at best. There 
> are a lot of times when I spend as little as five hours a week on technical 
> writing...others when I spend 50 hours a week on technical writing.
>
>   

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