Fluffy Writers

[Nora Merhar <MERHAR -at- ALENA -dot- BITNET>]

Janet,

And I assume, your skills being what they are, that you would pay those with
programming ability more than those of us who "are perfectly skilled at running
 end-user applications and writing about them ("This is the name field; enter
your name, last name first.")."

I am offended. One mark of a GOOD technical writer is an understanding of what
his/her audience needs to know. Sure, programmers need to know a different type
of information than end-users, but it can be just as challenging to write
for the end-users, ESPECIALLY in my situation. I deal with engineers/programmers
who each know a tiny bit of the big picture; when I ask the programmers what the
user is supposed to do with something they coded, their response often is "I
don't know--I just code it." I have to do a lot of detective work, and try to
think like a user to give them a rationale for what they're doing, as well as
telling them how to do it.

I have a B.A. in English, and an M.A. in Technical Writing. Despite your saying
that both types of writers "have their value" I feel dismissed by you as not
"technical" enough. All I can say is thank God that the programmers I work with
don't feel the same way you do. They're happy to give me information, grateful
when I point out mistakes and misspellings in the software, and obviuosly
pleased that THEY don't have to write the documentation.

Nora
merhar -at- edsvcs -dot- switch -dot- rockwell -dot- com