Re[2]: The Old Argument: FrameMaker vs. MS Word

[Harry Hager <hhager -at- dttus -dot- com>]

     Mark,
     
     Unless you are extremely secure in your present position and never 
     wish to work for another company, you are limiting your future 
     marketability as a technical writer if you think a technical writer 
     should not be concerned with or be able to address issues relating to 
     graphics, page layout, production, and so forth.
     
     Lots of technical writers are the sole technical writer in their group 
     or company. By ability, by choice, or because they have to in order to 
     survive, these tech writers know how to deal with these issues. Almost 
     all free lance technical writers need to know how to deal with these 
     issues. 
     
     About the only tech writers that do not need to deal with these issues 
     are those who work for companies or groups developing software that 
     have enough technical writing projects to keep 3, 4, or 5 tech writers 
     gainfully employed.  Even then, there are companies that have 30 or so 
     technical writers who deal with these issues on a daily basis. 
     
     I don't know the statistics, but I'd be willing to bet that there are 
     more software companies with only 1, or perhaps 2, technical writers 
     on board rather than 3, 4, or more technical writers on board.
     
     These companies that have only 1 technical writer on board are not 
     necessarily small companies. They could easily be multi-million or 
     even 100 million dollar companies, or larger.
     
     Seems to me that to be marketable in today's environment, the more 
     skills that a technical writer has the better off that person is. Even 
     Web page design and GUI design are not outside the skill sets of lots 
     of today's software technical writers. 
     
     If you don't have these (non-technical and non-writing) skills or are 
     not good at them, somebody else will be, and that somebody else will 
     get the job, or even replace you in your current job. 
     
     H. Jim Hager
     Deloitte Consulting
     Pittsburgh Solution Center 
       
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: The Old Argument: FrameMaker vs. MS Word
Author:  mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com at Internet-USA
Date:    1/21/00 10:13 AM


Tony Rocco wrote
     
     
> Sorry, Mark, but I beg to differ. You're idea of what a tech writer is in 
> this day and age is narrow and unrealistic, least in the software
> development world. I have been in this business for most of a decade and 
my
> jobs have never been pure writing jobs (and that's OK with me).
     
I wasn't saying that most companies don't demand that writers also be layout 
artists. They clearly do. I was saying it is a bad thing and that they 
should stop doing it.
     
Technical writing is very hard. It requires a high degree of mastery in two 
difficult areas, technology and writing. To add any more burden than that is 
to ensure poor quality results in every aspect of the job. No human being 
can be really good at that many different things at once.
     
And then there is the time factor. Good technical writers are hard to find. 
If they spend 60% of their time on layout and production related jobs, you 
need more than twice as many writers to complete a project.
     
What is the proper way to staff a department of (for example, five people)?
     
The usual scenario today is five writers doing all their own DTP and peer 
editing. DTP skill is a key hiring requirement. The result is low 
productivity, poor results, burnout and general dissatisfaction.
     
The proper way is three writers, one editor, and one desktop publisher or 
one text programmer. The criteria for hiring writers is writing skill and 
technical knowledge. The result is high productivity, good results, and 
enhanced job satisfaction.
     
     
---
Mark Baker
Senior Technical Communicator
OmniMark Technologies Corporation
1400 Blair Place
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K1J 9B8
Phone: 613-745-4242
Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com
Web: http://www.omnimark.com
     
     
     
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