Re: SACRED COWS

[Greg Burns <gburns -at- AONLINE -dot- COM>]

John Gilger wrote:

 

>It is easier to teach an engineer to write than it is to teach a "writer" or
>"technical communicator" to understand and explain engineering principles
>and technology.

 

    This is true; however, in my experience most lopsidedly left-brained technologists care little for the manipulation of words.  I've met engineers and technicians who can calculate nanoFarads of interelement capacitance between pins of a surface mounted IC in their heads, and yet cannot fathom the difference between "their", "they're", and "there".  Those who do write tend to produce dry, uninspired texts, filtered through spellcheck and grammarcheck software and apathetically printed on blinding white paper.  I've read also read very shallow, unenlightening manuals obviously transcribed from the scribblings an engineer left inside a matchbook cover: very little substance, surrounded by lots of fluff.  I suppose those of us who balance our passion for words with our lust for technology would make the best sort of writers.