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David made an excellent point, which ties back to an earlier post (since deleted) that noted that everyone thinks they can write well.
Leaving aside the content (which we all agree is the most important part of a tech doc, right? :-> ) this idea that "anyone can do it," along with a corresponding idea that "how I think is how everyone else thinks" is one reason some developers/managers/etc. have an impression that writers are overly adamant not letting developers suggest changes willy-nilly to "their" writing. Some perceive this as arrogance.
David said of writers: "While they don't mind interacting with others on the team to gain the information they need, they don't like these other team members telling them how
to use the information." And of course this is generally true. What can be hard to explain is that this expectation is both reasonable and has a corollary with developers.
Technical writing is what I was hired to do. (Tech writing in its full meaning: collecting, understanding, and organizing information and writing accurate and clear system documentation). When an engineer suggests a change to the _wording_ of a document (in the sense that they are not correcting a technical inaccuracy), they are often making that suggestion based on both the idea that "anyone can do it" and the idea that "how I think is how everyone else thinks."
But this is based on a false understanding of what is involved in technical writing. I don't just collect information from developers, I collect information from design docs, developers, and investigation of the product. I don't just write down whatever pops into my head, I consider what the audience needs to know. I'm not just churning out linear text, I'm organizing information into a logical structure, because in many cases, I know more about that product (in its totality) than any individual developer working on their module knows. This all feeds in to what I write and how I write it.
Having a developer suggest _wording_ changes (again, not for correctness) makes no sense. Especially when the developer is a poor writer. I feel free to reject suggested changes of this type. It's not arrogance - unless you're willing to call developers arrogant when they refuse wrong-headed suggestions from non-experts. Turning David's phrase on its head: While they don't mind interacting with others on the team to share the information they have, they don't like these other team members telling them how to write code. No?
Fortunately, the team I am currently working with is top-notch. Indeed, I have never worked with better. These are engineers who are frantically coding to meet a deadline, but who always take time to answer questions. Folks who are interested in making sure that the product is the best it can be - who ask for text string reviews, externalize all the error messages, ask for usability input. They ask questions, provide suggested topics for documentation, answer tech writer e-mail, and are just generally amazing.
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