RE: job title nomenclature on biz cards

[Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

"Tammy Lloyd" wrote 

> I also disagree with your statement that "if you handed me a card with
> the title 'technical writer' I would expect you to be able to author
> content from scratch based on your own knowledge." Only autobiographical
> writers can rely solely upon their own knowledge/experience; while, 
> all other writers must delve into research, including writers of fiction.

I think you're misunderstanding the concept of "your own knowledge."

Writers must internalize information to make use of it. Take ownership of
information. Understand it.

The ability to *write* is a combination of skills (language, logic, etc.)
that culminates in communication. However, understanding the subject matter
is a critical component. Its impossible to write material with any degree of
authority if you don't understand the content.

Once you understand something, you can explain it with authority. You
wouldn't buy a book on home repair from a person who cannot repair homes.
Why then should anybody buy any product with documentation produced by
writers who refuse or avoid learning the material.

A good writer is like an information processing plant. Raw information is
poured in one side, and useful, processed information is pushed out the
other side. A writer is NOT the person at the END of the conveyor trimming
off the excess threads and wrapping the information in a pretty box.

How you acquire knowledge (research, experience, sucking the brains out of
other people, etc.) is incidental. But you must possess it. Else, you're not
a writer.

> I apologize if I am misinterpreting your meanings here; but, please
> don't stereotype (or perpetuate a stereotype) that degrades other
> professionals in the technical writing field by pigeonholing their
> duties and abilities.

The only people who have pigeonholed and degraded tech writers is tech writers
themselves. Over the years, more and more tech writers flooded into the
marketplace refusing to learn the products/technologies they were documenting.
They kept calling themselves technical writers, but in fact they were neither
technical nor could they actually write anything. They were just wordsmiths.
Cleaning up other people's work. 

That is what is degrading tech writing. People who claim they are something
they are not. Everytime a person claims to be a tech writer, but is unable to
actually author anything technical, the tech writing profession sinks another
notch lower on the respect-o-meter. 

Andrew Plato





		
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