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Re: You're SUPPOSED to have good communication skills if you're a tech writer

Subject: Re: You're SUPPOSED to have good communication skills if you're a tech writer
From: Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 08:27:56 +0200


<analogy>

If a doctor comes in the examination room and proudly proclaims "I have a lot
of training with medicine!" as if that was some accomplishment, I'd get up and
walk away from him.

However, if I went to see a neurologist and he proudly proclaimed "I have an
exceptional amount of experience with brain tumors!" I might sit and listen to
him (especially since this thread is giving me a brain tumor.)

</analogy>

An excellent analogy! Because by equating general medical knowledge with writing skills and specialized knowledge about particular illnesses with technical skills it clearly shows us that:

- A technical writer needs to be skilled in writing - a non-trivial and non-common skill set - before he or she can seriously think about practising. Thus, being able to write well is not a skill that everybody has or that is in any way common. And: Having that skill alone already enables you to do useful work, just as there are a lot of GPs.

- Having the special skill alone doesn't hepl much if the general skill is missing as the basis. So, having technical knowledge alone will not enable you to become a good technical writer until you learn enough of the required underlying skillset. (Or unless you become part of a team that can supply the missing skills.)

- And, finally, the analogy shows us once more what few people ever have seriously disputed: A writer is most valuable when she or he has both good underlying writing skills and good specialized knowledge of a particular field of knowledge.

Regards
Jan Henning

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References:
You're SUPPOSED to have good communication skills if you're a tech writer: From: Andrew Plato

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