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> Do Tech writing and Marketing/Sales writing ever
> merge in the writing world,
> in in specific jobs or companies?
I'm sure that if you do a search in the archives for
"Marcom writers aren't Techcom writers"...JUST
KIDDING!!!
Seriously...this has been addressed at great length,
with most tech writers pretty much believing the above
statement.
OTOH, having done both, while in only one place did I
do both together, the skills learned under one
discipline helped me when doing the other. BTW...this
doesn't address the world of proposal response
writing, which according to MY beliefs, is the purest
form of technical writing because you must be clear to
all levels of your audience simultaneously, technicaly
accurate without talking up or down to any reader,
complete, and believable/persuasive. I'm wearing my
nomex underwear, so save the flame :-)
Knowledge of techcom made made my marcom writing
clearer, to the point, and better structured.
Knowledge of marcom made my techcom writing more
"visual", where I'm able to better create the mental
picture that we all experience when trying to create
or follow a set of procedures. Who amoung us, when
reading a step by step procedure, doesn't imagine
themself "plugging the cable A into socket 2"? I
think that if you can visualize a process, you will
retain the ability to do so in the future without
having to rely on the documentation each time.
my two cents.
=====
John Posada, Merck Research Laboratories
Sr Technical Writer, WinHelp and html
(work) john_posada -at- merck -dot- com - 732-594-0873
(pers) jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com - 732-291-7811
"The art of creating software that is usable by individuals is a communication skill. It is not a programming skill."
--Bill Atkinson, creator of MacPaint and HyperCard
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