Re. French writers/editors

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     Lori Moreland suggested "ecrivien(ne)" [sic] for the French of writer.
     I'd qualify that with the following:

        ecrivain(ne) = author, often used for screenplays or plays
                or fiction in general
        redacteur/redactrice = editor, usually in the sense of
                newspapers (also "editeur", more colloquially)
        reviseur = proofreader/copyeditor
        [accent "aigue" on the first "e" in each of the above]
        traducteur/traductrice = translator
        pigiste = freelancer, especially for a newspaper

        For the "technical" part, I've seen "technique" used as the
     adjective ("Je suis un reviseur technique"), or occasionally, "des
     textes technologique" ("of technical materials"). But as in the
     previous discussion of the Spanish translation, you might be better
     just saying "a writer" and then specifying what type of writing you
     do.

     I've noted in discussions with French colleagues that none of these
     translations seems exact... the French, no more logical a race than us
     anglos, use the various writer/editor phrases every bit as sloppily as
     we use "tech. writer/editor/communicator/etc.". I'd be interested to
     hear what our overseas French colleagues have to say on this matter!

     --Geoff Hart     #8^{)}  <-- tete carre bilingue (as we say in Quebec)
     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

     Disclaimer: These comments are my own and don't represent the opinions
     of the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada.