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So, Sue, how do I persuade you to come present your APi info for my
STC (CT)? Seriously.
TCDood ... your point is well taken, but you are a little off-based,
if you don't mind me saying so.
Techwriting is not *about* tools. Agreed.
Tools are a part of techwriting, though, be it a chisel, pen and ink,
typewriter, comptuer, etc.
Now employers can measure tool use, they can gauge it.
Employers understand the value of tool use, they can see it.
Every PHB in your organisation, and trust me, I've met more than a
few, believes in their core that any college-edumacated induhvidual
can write as well as a technical writer, every PHB, so writing is
undervalued.
Management skills in the technical writing domain are undervalued,
hands up those who report to someone other than a tech-writing
manager.
Projet-management skills for technical writers are more valued, agreed.
There are many important components to technical writing. I would
argue, tools can be taught, hire based on other things ... but I'd be
in the hiring minority to do so. And, as I mentioned before, tools
count. Consider, two candidates, both excellent technical writers but
one having rudimentary computer skills and no help-authoring,
desktop-publishing, or word-processing experience, and the other
having intermediate-level skills in the top ten most common and
popular packages ... which guy gets the job?
Tools are important because we use them to create our output, be it
hand-coding XML, cursing Ndoc or JavaDocs, RoboHelping the living
daylights out of some poor RTF file, or printing PostScript and PDF
for press. Tools are important and deserve a piece of the STC and
technical writing pie.
I write about computer software, you write about pharmaceuticals, he
writes about airplane maintenance, she writes about the latest
heat-seeking air-to-air missile for the army ... tools might be most
of what we have in common.
And, as I mentioned, tools look good to employers on a resume.
So, like it or not, tools are an important and easily measurable part
of being a technical writer and we should not dismiss them. Now, as
for STC meetings, of course tools will draw a crowd. I want that API
writing session, but a pharm., medical, DOD, or industrial-mechanical
technical writer probably has better things to do.
See where I'm headed? I would never argue tools are the important part
of our profession, or even really a significant part of our
professional skillset. But, I do content that tools are important in
drawing crowds, providing a common dialogue, searching for employment,
and as one of the *very few* measures of who we are professionally.
Make sense? Dood, you see the light? <vbg>
On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 19:30:42 -0400, Susan W. Gallagher
<sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net> wrote:
>
> I guess I qualify to speak on this subject as I am one of
> the few STC presenters who has been intrepid (or foolhearty)
> enough to bring highly technical and narrowly targetted
> presentations to STC meetings or conferences. I've presented
> my _how to write API docs_ sessions at conferences and local
> meetings. At conferences, I'm almost always assured of a
> large room and a full house, but at local meetings, the
> attendance numbers always drop considerably when I speak.
> And no, I don't take it personally <g>. I recognize that
> my topic doesn't have the kind of broad-spectrum appeal that
> _Using Photoshop with FrameMaker_ does.
======
T.
Remember, this is online. Take everything with a mine of salt and a grin.
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