Re: Technical writer survey: What should we really call ourselves?

Subject: Re: Technical writer survey: What should we really call ourselves?
From: "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:44:09 -0700

You can probably guess what my initial impression on seeing
"communicator" at the top of a resume sent in response to an opening
that I post as "writer" would be.

The thought behind my impression is generally that the individual who
feels the need to self-present as a "communicator" when I've advertised
for a writer is going to turn out to be someone who either lacks the
necessary skills for my writer position and is trying to "puff up" the
resume, will tend to devote more time and effort to trying to push
changes in style and delivery methodology than developing actual
technical content, suffers from an inferiority complex over being
thought of as a writer, or just can't read a job listing. None of these
are particularly desirable in a candidate.

Of course, if you're applying for a position that is actually listed as
"communicator," you need to do what you need to do if you want the job.
But as a writer, I would probably have all of the above concerns about
the working environment.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message -----
From: "Cardimon, Craig" <ccardimon -at- M-S-G -dot- com>
> Some would say "communicator" is a $20 word and "writer" is a $10
> word.
> Many people are only paying for the $10 word. You can call yourself a
> communicator if you want, but you're being paid as a writer (provided
> you actually write stuff). Like it or not.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat


Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Technical writer survey: What should we really call ourselves?: From: Cardimon, Craig

Previous by Author: Re: Technical writer survey: What should we really call ourselves?
Next by Author: Re: Have some suggestions about Word?
Previous by Thread: RE: Technical writer survey: What should we really call ourselves?
Next by Thread: RE: Technical writer survey: What should we really call ourselves?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads