Re: Techwriting after the boom

["Michael West" <mbwest -at- removebigpond -dot- net -dot- au>]

"Bruce Byfield" wrote:

> As a side note, about the closest thing to a technical writer in the
> 1700s would be the ministers who sold sermons for a living.

That's an interest comment, but I don't think I see
theology as a technical field. While there seems to
be a general consensus that modern technical writing
as a distinct occupational specialty evolved in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in association
with the late industrial revolution, I think it is possible
to find close  precedents to technical writing (as we
know it) in earlier centuries, in such areas as engineering,
military science, mining, metallurgy, geology -- in short,
any time there is a requirement to publish technical
information.

And if you extend the focus to include business writing
(policies and procedures, product descriptions, advertising
copy), which most of us also get involved in from time to time
as technical writers, you can find many pre-industrial revolution
analogues.

You could even argue, I think, that writings of exploration
were an early antecedent of technical writing. Before these
journals, diaries, and maps could be published, editors, artists,
engravers, and scholars were enlisted to prepare them for
publication.

To relate all this to the original topic in thread, any time
there was a requirement for publishing technical information
for general use, there were two considerations: first, the
written material must be accurate and useful; second, it must
be edited and published to a professional standard. It was taken
for granted that the "subject matter expert" (that is, the explorer
or engineer) was not able, without the help of "communications
experts" (editors, publishers, designers, annotators, indexers,
scholars) to prepare the material for publication.

The first consideration meant that the author must either
be an expert in the field, or must have extensive contact
with experts in the course of compiling and organizing
the information. The second consideration meant that
somewhere between the compilation of the raw
textual material and the booksellers' shelves, intervention
was required by people whose specialties were not in
the technical subject matter, but in the compilation,
design and production of books.

The idea, therefore, that the role of the "subject matter expert"
in publishing is as new as the twentieth century -- let alone
as new as the last decade or two -- simply won't stand up to
a second's scrutiny.

It was the advent of so-called desktop publishing that deluded
many people in technical fields to believe that they had what it takes
to be good writers, editors, and publication designers. I was around
when that happened, and what I saw was a general decline in the
quality of technical publications. They may have been technically
accurate, but they were dull, leaden, ponderous, ugly, verbose, badly
organized, unfocussed, and oblivious to their audience's requirements.
What other result could be expected if you blur the distinction
between technical experts and technical communicators?
--
Michael West
Melbourne, Australia






^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Robohelp X3, from eHelp, lets you quickly and easily create 
professional Help systems for all your Windows and Web-based 
applications, including Net. 

Order RoboHelp X3 in May and receive a $100 mail-in rebate, PLUS
free RoboScreenCapture and WebHelp Merge Module. 
 
Order RoboHelp today: 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.