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

["Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com>]

Jan Henning wrote:

> - 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.

Oh please! We live in a literate society. Or entire economy depends on the
fact that every professional person is able to write well enough to
communicate effectively with their peers and clients. Writing is a common
skill. Not trivial, perhaps, but common.

Certain types of writing require special skills, such as investigation or
persuasion. But in these cases, the skills of investigation or persuasion
are paramount in defining the role, not the writing ability, which is shared
with all educated people.

> And: Having that skill alone already enables you to do useful work,
> just as there are a lot of GPs.

No. Having writing skill alone qualifies you to pass sixth grade. Though, in
truth, it makes no sense to talk about having the skill of writing in
isolation from other skills and knowledge. Language is history, art, and
science. Language is rhetoric, psychology, politics, and marketing. Writing
skill cannot exist in a vacuum.

Literacy, the ability to read and write, is the common glue of the arts,
sciences, and professions. It is what we all do, and any distinction we
achieve is founded not on mere writing skill, but on our underlying skills
and knowledge in the arts, sciences, and professions.

Yes, there are people with an extraordinary facility for wordcraft, but they
are few and far between. They are a joy to read, no matter what subject they
write on, but woodcraft of that caliber is not required for the ordinary
professional communications of the members of a literate society.

The sad truth is that some of the worst prose to be found today comes from
people who style themselves writers.
---
Mark Baker
Senior Technical Writer
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com

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