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

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

> Writing skill, in my definition, is
> the ability to express anything clearly that the writer has understood.
> Lack of writing skills, consequently, means that even facts that have
> been understood cannot reliably expressed clearly.
>
> My opinion still is that this is a skill that is a) rare b) valuable in
> its own right.

Well, in the first place, it is manifestly not rare and our society would
not work if it was. Professionals of all walks of life communicate with each
other in writing about subjects they understand. If they did not, and could
not, our economy would not function.

But I am perplexed by your assertion that a skill that you admit cannot be
used in isolation is valuable in its own right. Writing is not valuable in
isolation from understanding. It is valuable as a way of expressing what you
understand. The skill of expressing what you understand is not valuable
unless you actually understand something. People don't read you for the
beauty of your prose, but because they want to know what you know.

Knowledge that you cannot express may be valuable in its own right, for at
least you can act on it. But writing ability is not useful in its own right.
It is useful only when you have something to say.

Actually, I suspect that you are confusing the ability to write with the
ability to teach. The knack of understanding the gap between ignorance and
knowledge, and how to bridge it, is a separate art which can be applied to
any subject, once you learn the subject.

That art can be expressed in writing, or course. That does not make teaching
a writing skill. You can teach without writing. However, tech writers are
often in a teaching position: bridging a cognitive gap between the user and
the developer. However, their ability to bridge that cognitive gap is not
per se a writing skill. It is a teaching skill which can be applied and
expressed in many ways, one of which is through the craft of writing which
is shared by all educated people.

What is wrong with much tech writing is not that it is poorly expressed
(which is rare) or that it is technically inaccurate (which is more common,
but not epidemic) but that it simply says the wrong thing to the wrong
person.

Most people know both what to say and how to say it when writing for someone
with whom they have much in common. When communicating with someone whose
knowledge and experience is significantly different from your own, the
biggest problem is to work out what to say, not how to say it.

---
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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