Re: Engineers and Tech Writers

[Jay Wynia <jwynia -at- JASC -dot- COM>]

        <quote>
> arises. However, I often get asked why I'm wasting my time as a writer
> when I could be designing circuits. Well, I discovered that design is
> not my forte, and writing is something I really like to do. I was a
> writer first, and an engineer second.
        </quote>

        At my previous employer, a contract engineer made a similar comment
within my earshot. He was telling the QA Engineer in the next cubicle that
technical writers were on that career path because they either failed at
being an engineer or lacked the skills necessary to be an engineer. I took a
little trip over there and indicated that I understood coding, had taken a
couple of coding classes and just preferred writing. To me, the idea of
spending my days tracking memory leaks and bugs just doesn't appeal to me.
He couldn't understand and asked me why, if I could understand the concepts
of coding and the languages, I would choose writing doc instead. I asked him
if he had what he considered a command of the English language. He said yes.
I asked if he understood most of English syntax and had a fairly large
vocabulary. He again said yes. I then asked him why he doesn't write poetry
and novels. After all, he understands the language and the concepts of
writing. His response was that writing that type of stuff would bore him
completely. I still don't think he completely understood and his contract
ended soon after that so I didn't get a chance to build on the conversation.


        It seems a lot of people have what I call an "everything but what I
do is easy" syndrome. It isn't just engineers. I see it everywhere.

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