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Re: I had say it because I was afraid no one else would?
Subject:Re: I had say it because I was afraid no one else would? From:Janet Swisher <jmswisher -at- gmail -dot- com> To:Technical Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:10:02 -0600
On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 10:47 AM, voxwoman <voxwoman -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> wrote:
>
>> Collin reports: <<"Why tech writers use so much jargon, I don't know.
>> Maybe it's self-aggrandizement; they want to lord their knowledge over
>> everybody else. Maybe it's laziness; they can't be bothered to fish
>> for a plain-English word. Maybe it's just habit; they spend all day
>> talking shop with other nerds, so they slip into technospeak when they
>> write for larger audiences."
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/technology/personaltech/16pogue-email.html?_r=4&8cir=&oref=slogin&emc=cira1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
>> >>
>>
> It seems to me that he is using the term "tech writer" to refer to
> journalists who report on technical issues, rather than people of our ilk,
> who actually write technical documentation.
Yes, it's fairly clear from context, if you read the whole piece and
not just the quoted paragraph, that he's talking about how *he* keeps
jargon out of his newspaper column. And the category of writer that he
belongs to is "technology journalist", not "technical writer". The
other category he may be addressing is marketing writers for
technology companies, who write the product announcements that he
digests and turns into "reporting".
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