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>But, now, something is afoot that may shift some technical writing
>paradigms--the Internet. Vast improvements in technical writing first
>came with PCs and the Mac, because it moved technology from the
>province of a small technical elite into the hands of ordinary,
>workaday people.
A couple of other factors are also at work.
First, the audience for technical writing has changed. When you started,
the audience for technical writing was largely professionals. Now, with
a more general audience, writers have to change their style.
Second, the value of technical writing has changed for at least three
reasons:
1.) An entire high-tech industry of explaining high-tech industry has
evolved, so the need for good writing is more widely understood.
2.) International markets - especially the European Union - require more
complete documentation as a precondition for doing business.
3.) Some influential parts of the high-tech industry (hint: look at the
resistance to switching immediately to Widows 95 or to Word 97) are no
longer in an expanding market. Once a market reaches saturation,
value-added material - including good documentation - suddenly becomes
important. After all, in a saturated market, buyers no longer have to
buy. Instead, you have to persuade them by offering them better
services.
It's true that some of the companies that sell in the saturated market -
such as Microsoft - haven't responded to the change. It's also true that
other areas of high-tech are still expanding rapidly. However, I think
the change in outlook is happening slowly.
"Then fareweel ye banks o' Sicily,
Fare ye weel ye valley an' shaw,
There's nae Jock will mourn the kyles o' ye,
Puir bluidie swaddies are weary."
- Hamish Henderson,
"The 51'st Division's Farewell to Sicily"
