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Subject:Re: technical writers by default From:Ken Stitzel <stitzel -at- LVLD -dot- HP -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 7 Sep 1994 21:43:18 GMT
Janice Gelb (janiceg -at- Eng -dot- Sun -dot- COM) wrote:
: Are engineers turned into writers any better or worse than people who are
: writers as a profession? Worse. Trust me.
: For one thing, they tend to write from the point of view of engineers
: rather than real users. For another, they tend to write more in stream
: of consciousness than to plan a structure of a book. And, they use a
: *lot* more jargon.
I tried to qualify my statement that engineers may or may not be better
than professional writers, but I think that you are right. At my journalism
school, the teachers frequently stated that it's easier to a technical topic
to someone who can already write than it is to teach a technical person how
to write. But not everyone in management knows this.
I guess I meant to say that starting as a technical person doesn't preclude
a person from becoming a good writer. But, unfortunately, you are correct.
Ken (who didn't start out as a techie but has other good excuses)
(stitzel -at- lvld -dot- hp -dot- com) Not an HP-ite.
