RE: Tech Writing Skills, College Degrees, Marketable Skills

[MList -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

> Yes, you have to know the user, but not at the expense or in 
> lieu of knowing
> the technology and science behind whatever it is you're documenting. 

My experience is that you usually have access to the technology 
in the form of samples (even if they aren't "ready for prime time") 
and in the form of engineering and other in-house documents (if you 
haven't written them yourself...).  If you can't get cozy with the
technology you're writing about, something's wrong.
On the other hand, if you can get as cozy and proficient with it 
as the people who test and break it all day, something is wrong...
why aren't you writing?   :-)

However, knowing the audience is quite another thing. My impression 
is that a distressingly high percentage of us (me included) do 
not have contact with real, customer end-users of our products, 
so we are constantly playing catch-up via the Tech Support and 
Sales Support people.

I've been at a few companies in my time, and was at the current 
one during the tech boom, and even then there was no budget to 
send the techwriter to a customer site. Much less so (less than 
zero?) after the tech bubble burst.

/kevin

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