RE: Discussing being a techie writer (and briefly on that salary thingy)..and I have probably written far to much....

["Sean O'Donoghue (EPA)" <Sean.O'Donoghue -at- ericsson -dot- com -dot- au>]

	Okay my opinion (not at all HO ;-)...I am a TW!!!)

	As a techie writer I am often, usually, most of the time, surrounded
by people who are very clever in their own fields. My value, to them, is
that hopefully I do my work better than they would do it themselves, and
that the customers like, and can use, what I produce.

	I will pat egos, stroke personality problems and mental deficiencies
of those SMEs who give me information. I will threaten, cajole, and bribe. I
will do what ever it takes to produce positive output.

	I will acknowledge they have work to do, they have their own
problems, and will try not to add to these. If, as occurs, I encounter a
prima-donna who does not value technical writers I shall not value myself
any less highly, as pointed out - if we didn't write the documentation no
one would know how to use their wonderful application/system/gizmo. I will
be persistent, annoying, and downright dogged in getting the information I
need, and after the fourth or fifth time of visiting them (the prima
donnas), they will get the message that I will not be placated till the end
result is good enough for me, and for the customer. 

	Most engineering or programming types will smile, and even laugh,
when you say to them that they have created the perfect intuitive tool for a
user to use. They smile and laugh because (a) they are smart enough to know
they had to make compromises due to - the project time/the budget/the
restraints of the tools they were forced to use.....(b) all users are not as
smart as them, and therefore the system/service that is intuitive to them
will be gobbledy-gook to a "normal" user. At this point a little light
appears above their heads as they realize that the way to overcome this
shortcoming is to get some other less than perfect individual to document
the system - they then turn to me and provide the information I seek......
(and how easily they have fallen into my cunning trap - easier than hunting
chocolate!!!).

	I will not try and be as well informed as the programmer/application
designer/engineer - their job is to be really, really good in their field -
my job is to know enough not to hinder them, and NOT know enough to be able
to still empathize with the user/customer. This may well be the engineers
main project, or world, it is only one project to me - or one
area/module/section/component of one project.....after I leave this person,
I also have to know everything about - networks, system administration, the
bits in the back, the front, the marketing approach, the changes from last
time...........  

	I am a technical writer....I have a memory trained to hold facts for
the  length of a project plus two weeks, after that I have all those other
projects overwrite that area of brain/memory.

	as the late Anthony Quinn said in "Lawrence of Arabia":

	"I am a river to my people!!!!!"


	[[and on the salary thing.....Socrates I believe did lie (Socrates
is in the range of Greek Names...;-)...
	.....I am not so high minded to state I have never lied.....however
I try to do it by omission. In job interviews I just say what I want - and
take the job. If they don't want to give me what I want - and I, being the
centre of the universe, am always the best candidate - then they can go and
live with the consequences of getting a graduate state out of Veterinarian
School to do their documentation. I think we all should remember the Rolling
Stones immortal words (which I may have incorrectly remembered) : "You can't
get what you want, but you can get what you need...." ]]  

> > My job then, as a "very" techie writer, was to help them see my value,
> which
> > I think I managed in the end. I believe this aspect of the business
> occurs
> > more often than people want to admit, and it's a real shame. Without the
> > technical writing to document the development, we'd have a bunch of
> > wonderful systems that no one could use!
> >
> > Norita Sieffert
> > Technical Writer
> 

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