RE: Damnit Jim, I'm a Writer, not a Programmer II: The Wrath of K ahn

["Giordano, Connie" <Connie -dot- Giordano -at- FMR -dot- COM>]

Andrew,

I despise the "writers only" as much as you.  However,  there are as many
companies who need tech comm generalists, who can understand processes,
rules, how investment managers use PCs, and how to make sure a trust fund
doesn't go into overdraft (part of what I do), as the folks who can read VB
or any other code and figure out what it does from there.  I denigrate
neither, it's just different subsets.

I don't have a sole talent, I have lots of them.  It just so happens that my
job descriptions have never included programming ability--I've worked with
programmers who have that in their job description, and who tend to
recognize very quickly what I bring to a team effort of getting a good
product out the door.  I understand very general programming concepts, and
could probably recognize some code (and they understand basic rules of
grammar and sentence construction),  but my job is as much explaining the
why as the how.  And you don't necessarily need to be able to write code to
do that.  Learning why bank operations are managed the way they are is
excessively complicated and technical!  It just ain't code.  And that's OK
with me.

Connie

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Plato [mailto:intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2001 4:51 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Damnit Jim, I'm a Writer, not a Programmer II: The Wrath of
Kahn


> I'm just annoyed by tech writers who defer their
> own unique abilities to those of developers, especially to the point of
> being afraid that not knowing how to program somehow makes them second
> class.  Or that being able to makes them superior to the rest of us. 
Not
> accusing you, Anne, but I have seen that attitude displayed fairly
> frequently over the last three years that I've subscribed to the list.

I think the problem here is the class of writers who see their mastery of
English or usability as their sole talent. Most companies simply do not
value this skill as highly as they value writers who have more extensive
technical skills - such as programming. 

If you consider that our profession has two core skill sets (shown in
order of importance):

1. TECHNICAL
2. COMMUNICATION

You have to be good at BOTH. Now, at your company, the TECHNICAL portion
of your job might be to analyze business rules or change design user
interfaces. Super - that's how it works at your company.  However, the
technical component of the job at other corporations is much different.
Some companies want writers who can read code. Others settle for trained
monkeys. If you want a job at a company that demands technical prowess,
don't be offended when they ask you to interpret some code. 

I make writers take a nasty technical test when they apply - many bomb the
test completely. Although my criteria for hiring involves many factors
(which are not up for debate), the test factors into everything. 

What bother a lot of us - especially me - is the writers who focus
virtually all their energy on the WRITING side of their profession to the
point of denying and even being openly hostile toward the TECHNICAL side
of their job.  

How would you like a lawyer who loved to argue cases - but didn't feel it
was necessary to be knowledgeable about the laws relevant to his
arguments? Would you trust any argument from such a lawyer?

Why then should anybody trust documentation from writers who cannot or
will not learn the technical aspects of their job?   Moreover, just
grazing the surface is not enough. If you don't know how things work you
cannot accurately describe how to use them. 

Or as Tyler Durden says: Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you
a chicken. 

------------------------------------
Andrew Plato
President / Principal Consultant
Anitian Corporation
(503) 644-5656 office
(503) 201-0821 cell
http://www.anitian.com
Yahoo Messenger: Anitian
------------------------------------




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