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Subject:Re: What to look for in a technical editor From:"Brian Das" <brian_das -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 16 May 2003 17:05:32 +0000
Hi,
I think it's incorrect to prioritize writing skills over subject matter
knowledge, or vice-versa. Isn't it a bit like trying to determine if a
bike's front wheel or back wheel is more important? If either fails, you're
bikeless. (I'm sure a better writer could come up with a better analogy!)
Subject matter knowledge is an outcome of a cardinal rule in technical
writing -- know your audience. Good audience analysis includes learning
about your users and their goals, which has to include learning about the
domain they work in, be it accounting or gardening or rocket science or
database maintenance.
I was a writer first, and then a software developer, and now I do both. In
my experience, the skills sets are complimentary -- examples include
critical thinking, attention to detail and subtlety, an understanding of
logic, an eye for visual design, and an ability to stick to a methodology.
Oh...and geekiness helps, too.
Anyway, maybe writers who champion writing and techies who champion teching
aren't as different as they seem. And maybe some of the principles of tech
writing, if expanded a bit, reveal that subject matter knowledge isn't an
item on an ordered list of priorities, but is (along with good grammar and
critical thinking and several other skills) one of the requirements of
success in the job.
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