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Subject:RE: Just a Tech Writer (medium length) From:"David Knopf" <david -at- knopf -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 9 May 2002 13:11:07 -0700
Victoria Whitehorne wrote:
>>>
The realization that after many years of being a technical writer,
albeit a
good one with a variety of experience including desigining and
developing
web-based help systems, I'm still "just a tech writer" hit me like a
smack
in the face today. Even though I am involved on the project team
through
the entire process (starting with the proposal and continuing through to
the
delivery of the application to the customer), my skills are still only
listed on the project plan as the technical writer. It doesn't matter
that
I help the proposal writer identify missing pieces, that I can find gaps
in
the requirements documents, that I can add the user's perspective to the
interface design, or that I can write test cases. I'm still only the
technical writer.
<<<
Well, this may not be what you want to hear, but it seems to me that
these are the things that a GOOD technical writer does. If you weren't
involved in the entire project lifecycle and instead spent your days
rewriting text you didn't understand that was supplied to you by others,
you'd still probably be called a technical writer; you just wouldn't be
a good one. I think you can take pride in being a good technical writer
instead of thinking of it as "only" or "just."
WebWorks and RoboHelp Certified - RoboHelp MVP
Member, JavaHelp 2.0 Expert Group
Moderator, HATT & wwp-users
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