SME vs. audience?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

The anonymous twriter01 wonders: <<As a technical writer, I would like to be
the SME and "one with my audience." However, that is not always the case. If
you have to pick one path, which would you choose: be "one with your
audience" and interview
your SME for information that you know your audience needs, or become an
SME, and then write for the intended audience, or do something completely
different?>>

You never truly have to "pick one" at the expense of the other, since you'll
need both skills to do your work effectively. It's more important to be able
to speak clearly to your audience, because your company already employs SMEs
who often can't do that--thus, someone must fill the role of "speaker to
audiences", and that person is you. But you won't be effective as a
technical writer if you don't understand at least some of what you're
describing, and as time goes by, you should learn enough about it that you
spend very little time pestering the SMEs about small details.

The real trick, of course, is to become an expert without sacrificing the
naivete that lets you empathize with your audience. After all, once you
become a true expert (like your SMEs), it's hard to remember that you're
speaking to people who don't know everything you know. Always remember what
it's like not to understand something, and check your assumptions at the
door when you write.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada

"I don't read literary theory anymore; it makes my brain hurt... I have way
too much time on my hands and way too little to think about. In this
respect, the laundromat is not much different from the English department
office."--Tim Morris, U of Texas English professor ("Suds", in _The American
Scholar_)