Agriculture and Tech Writing?

Subject: Agriculture and Tech Writing?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: techwr-l List <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Dash Barron <dashbarron -at- hotmail -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 09:07:00 -0400

Dash Barron reports: <<Greetings. I'm new to the field of Tech
Writing and I'm attempting to explore all possibilities.>>

Welcome to the fray(ed)!

<<As my background revolves around agriculture, I am seeking to learn
how these two fields are related, and what sort of career
opportunities and experiences are available for someone like me
wishing to become a hybrid of these two professions.>>

Well, let's put it this way: Agribusiness is one of the largest
business sectors around the world (ADM probably has higher gross
revenues than most developing countries), is heavily international
(thus multicultural), is pretty much immune to the kinds of things
that periodically wreck other industries (people always need to eat),
and has gone high-tech in a big way (both at the farm level and the
corporate level). It's hard to imagine that there wouldn't be
opportunities for technical writers!

For some thoughts on how you might identify those opportunities:
http://www.geoff-hart.com/resources/2006/finding-work.htm


<<Where may I begin my inexorable exploration into the different
fields of Tech Writing...>>

Needless to say, techwr-l is a good starting point once you've done a
bit of background reading. (Folks here aren't always kind to people
who haven't done their homework.) If you don't know anything much
about the field, there are dozens of textbooks, ranging from one "for
dummies" book up to postgraduate course material. Visit your local
big-box bookstore and grab a handful of books off the rack, browse
'em, and see which one speaks most clearly to you. Then take it home
and read it.

But don't take what it says as gospel. Our profession has a bunch of
"best practices", but there's surprisingly little consensus on "the
right way to do everything". Most of what you'll see in textbooks
seems to be a mixture of "this seems to work, or at least most people
are doing it", "I think this should work because it seems logical,
but I've never actually tested it", and "we've proven this to
everyone's satisfaction through careful research, so let's move on
already".

<<... and is there anyone who is working specifically in the field of
agriculture?>>

Not quite... my field is forestry. Some similarities, but not really
the same thing.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
***Now available*** _Effective onscreen editing_
(http://www.geoff-hart.com/home/onscreen-book.htm)


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References:
Agriculture and Tech Writing: From: Dash Barron

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