Apology Re: "Want fries with that?"

[Rob Howard <planb -at- SIMCOE -dot- NET>]

At 08:33 AM 4/29/99 -0700, you wrote:
>In the digest you wrote....
>
>>I know I'm only a clueless newbie, but I can assure you none of my previous
>>positions required use of the phrase, "You want fries with that?"
>>
>>Cheers
>
>Many of mine did.
>
>I paid my way through college with the phrase, "Do you want fries with
>that?"  (Well, more accurately, "Will this be a pick-up or a
>delivery?")  I can assure you that very few people like getting minimum
>wages for burning themselves on a 600-degree oven and going home
>stinking of sausage.  We do what we have to to get by, and hope that
>eventually we'll move on to bigger and better things, such as tech
>writing.
>
>I'm one of the lucky ones.  You are, too.
>
>Cheers.
>
>        --Asher Miller




Yes, you are absolutely right.  That was an intemperate remark fired off in
a rather thoughtless way.  I apologize to the list.

For the last several months I have systematically turned my life upside
down in order to do all the "right" things to become a tech writer.  Why?
Because I sincerely would like to occupy that little piece of realestate
between technology creator and technology user.  I commute 1.5 hours one
way in order to attend college classes in order to obtain a tech comm
certificate in order to demonstrate to potential employers that I'm serious
about the idea that tech comm is a profession - and an essential one at
that.  For that same reason I've joined professional organizations,
attended PD meetings and started a web site http://www.techcomm.on.ca

I'm 35 and have 2 children, 3 and 5.  When not doing the above I look after
them.  Before this I spent 2 years as a project manager for a new media
firm.  Before that I spent 5 years as an ESL instuctor and curriculm
designer for the Canadian Federal government.  Before that I spent a year
in Japan and before that I spent 2 years doing post grad work to get ESL
certification so that I could demonstrate to employers that I was serious
about being a professional in that field.

All of this is way more than you need to know about me Asher, but I wanted
to lay it out for you as a way of explaining my hasty and ill considered
reaction to someone else's ill considered remarks concerning the "quality"
of neophyte tech writers.

Here is the remark I was reacting to

>Apparently, from what I've seen on this list recently, a desire to be a
>technical writer makes a technical writer.  No one seems to mind if
>he/she has proper training, education, etc.  If the junior high school
>English teacher gave you a B, that's good enough!!  How many threads
>have been the intellectual equivalent of "I used to specialize in flame
>broiling down at the BK, but I really want to be a tech writer.  How
>should I market myself?"  It is perhaps the desire to be tech writers
>by people who are clearly unprepared that makes the job environment
>difficult for those of us who are.  But, hey, anyone can write, right?



The funny thing is that I know better than react to this type of thing.  It
certainly was not my intent to denegrate  anyone's work experience.



Best regards

Rob






Rob Howard
All opinions are MINE.
If I had an employer I'm sure he'd agree though...

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