A Tech Writer's Background

Subject: A Tech Writer's Background
From: Connie Winch <CEW -at- MACOLA -dot- USA -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 1995 16:43:00 LCL

Beware: This is a little long...

So you know the perspective this opinion comes from, I'm a Technical
Writer who holds a Bachelor of Arts in English with an emphasis in
Professional Writing. I've been in this profession - specifically,
computer software documentation - for a little over a
year and a half. Before taking my first position, I knew a thing
or two about computers but definitely more about how to use them
than about the software development process or about manufacturing
and accounting, the areas for which the software that I write about
is targeted.

The opinion: Salespeople sell, Programmers program, Engineers
engineer. And Writers write. The technical information that
a Technical Writer needs to know can be learned. If a Technical
Writer knows all the technical information but does not know
how to write well, the purpose is defeated, because the message
will not be communicated. The message may get into a manual
and go out the door, but it is not communicated unless the reader
first of all attempts to *read* it (often they do not and the reasons
are many and varied but some can relate directly to the quality
of the actual writing) and secondly comprehends it well enough
to perform the task for which s/he's reading a manual/product
info piece. And often the more steeped in the technical info a
person becomes, the harder it is to retain the end-user's
perspective. (Did you ever have a college professor who'd
been teaching his/her subject so long & knew so much about
it s/he assumed "everyone" - including you poor souls who
had to take their class - knew some of the "basics" that
you in fact did not know? You get my point.)

Of course the opposite holds true: A Techie can learn to write.
(I don't believe that the ability to write is genetic.)
However, it seems that this is rarely recognized as necessary.
It is assumed that since "Anyone who graduated from HS &
college knows how to write (They had to take gazillion
Comp. classes, after all)", the Techie needs no further training
in order to join a Technical Communication department.

This attitude stems from two the belief that any style of writing is
just as good as any other style of writing for a given communication
goal. This is simply not true. Would you take the same approach
writing a personal essay (the bane of every Comp. student's
existence), with an audience of the Comp. teacher, as you would for
writing a procedure for posting accounts receivable to the general
ledger on a high-end accounting software package, with an audience
of accounting professionals who are managing the finances of a
Fortune 500 company? Of course not.

OK. I'm done spouting.

Connie E. Winch
Technical Writer
Macola, Incorporated
cew -at- macola -dot- usa -dot- com


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