RE: real tech writers? RE: Out-of-Work Tech Writers and Switching Careers

["David Lettvin" <dlettvin -at- attbi -dot- com>]

First, some background:
I've been in the business for about 20 years. My background was in 
journalism. My son, then in the fourth grade was part of a pilot project to 
teach kids to program. He fell in love with it, but as he tried to do more, 
he had to come to me with questions. Fatherly ego kept me up at night 
trying to stay ahead of him. Eventually I too succumbed and returned to 
school to learn to program.

I found out almost immediately that I was a capable programmer, but much 
better at understanding and explaining software. My first job was writing 
and delivering training. I have alternated between training and manuals 
ever since.

For the last 10 years I managed an "Information Development" department for 
a large corporation. That experience produced the following observations.

Disclaimer: Most of the TWs that I worked with were unaware of the 
existence of Techwr-l. Their disengagement and your participation on this 
list therefore automatically excludes you from my sample group. ;->

<soapbox>
I have found four general types of technical writer in the corporate 
culture. These are:

Technicians
--------------
This person really wants to be a programmer.
Many feel disrespected by the software engineers and want to become SMEs 
and concentrate on technology in order to move out of the field and into 
bit-pushing or some other form of engineering.

Others in this group see technological solutions to the delivery of 
information. These folks often stay in the field and concentrate on content 
management, knowledge management, WBT/CBT design and similar forms of 
infrastructure.

Authors
----------
This person really wants to be an author. Technical writing subsidizes 
their "real work." If they are competent, they keep the disciplines 
separated, but the subtext is that it's not what they really want to do. 
They're just waiting for the big break.

Cogs
------
This person just wants a paycheck. A common group in the corporate 
environment (and one of the reasons I left), they do what they're told . . 
. no more, but often less. The best of them do their jobs competently and 
dependably. The worst of them complain about and even impede progress if it 
means that they need to change the way they work. They don't care about 
technical writing one way or another, it's their job from 9-5. Many of 
these are the refugees from other departments that Ed talks about.

Technical Writers
--------------------
This person loves to communicate. They may like technology, or write poetry 
in their free time, but at the core they love their craft. There is nothing 
they would rather do than make the light go on in the user's brain. Real 
technical writers are passionate about their discipline, their craft, and 
their challenges.

I regret to say that they are the smallest group. 

Maybe it's corporate hiring practices, but out of 90 technical and training 
writers working for my recent employer perhaps 10-12 were proud of their 
job. If those proportions are consistent throughout the profession, it's no 
surprise that we don't get any respect.

When Rodney Dangerfield whines, "I don't get no respect," we laugh, because 
his tone of voice makes it clear that he has no respect for himself. He 
wants other people to give him what he can't or won't give himself. So as 
members of a profession that contains so many people who are ambivalent or 
even embarrassed by what they do, we may feel like we get no respect. We 
suffer from the Dangerfield Syndrome.

Is there such a thing as a "real technical writer?" Damn right there is it 
is someone who wants the job (not a job), wants to do it well and is proud 
to be a "real technical writer."
</soapbox>

- Doc 
Information Designer 
VersaText 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
  5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
  Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.

Check out RoboDemo for tutorials! It makes creating full-motion software
demonstrations and other onscreen support materials easy and intuitive.
Need RoboHelp? Save $100 on RoboHelp Office in May with our mail-in rebate.
Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.