Re: What does a Tech Writer Do?

["Race, Paul" <pdr -at- CCSPO -dot- DAYTONOH -dot- NCR -dot- COM>]

>Seriously though, I notice that there are plenty of women contributing
>to this newsgroup, but are there many middle-aged women in the
>US technical writing community?  It's one of the pleasures of a group
>like this that one doesn't usually know people's ages, nor do they
>matter - but I'm curious.

Well, I'm not a "woman of a certain age," being a male of 42, but in our
department of about 35 writers, we have about 15 women, at least 8 of whom
are over forty, and four or five might be hovering around or exceeding 50.
 I won't go around and ask, though, if it's all the same to you.  A number
of them are women who went from the "typing" route through the "editing"
route in several clerical positions, then started "contracting" for more and
more involved projects, until they were writing and editing most of the
time.  Generally, they like having somebody from a writing background
providing the "high-level" design and some direction, then they go off by
themselves and work like the dickens and turn out something very nice.  With
a little more training, I'm sure that any of them could do the "high-level"
design stuff, too, but that usually has attendant responsibilities such as
supervising other writers, that they might not consider worth the trade-off.
 (BTW the company would pay for that training for any employees who would
pursue it, so the doors are open.  A few years ago, we had several female
writing managers and project leaders, but many of them have moved on to what
they considered better opportunities.)

Hope this helps - paul -dot- d -dot- race -at- daytonoh -dot- ncr -dot- com (AT&T GIS PSD TCSD NIISG)