RE: What Are Writing Skills?

["Walden Miller" <wmiller -at- vidiom -dot- com>]

Since, I joined this thread late and everyone else is throwing in the towel,
I thought I would try once more.

Tony Markos:

Ok, so there is no such thing as a structured approach
to writing.  Seems you agree that SR is just "blue
smoke and mirrors".  My original question, Sharon, was
"What Are Writing Skills?".  I was told that the
"meat" of writing skills is structured writing.  Are
writing skills then "blue smoke and mirrors"?

Walden Miller:
What are writing skills....
Starting from scratch:  (in no particular order): Grammar, Sentence
formation, Paragraph formation, extended thought formation, understanding of
argumentation theory (all issues from here are encompassed in some aspect of
rhetoric), audience analysis (when audience is actually known), audience
postulation (when audience is unknown), understanding of problem analysis,
understanding of visual rhetoric, understanding of oral rhetoric,
understanding of textual rhetoric, understanding of business/marketing,
understanding of conventions, understanding of form, understanding of
design, understanding of process, etc.

Henceforth, the above list and other missed topics will be referred to as
all of the above (AOTA).

Next up: Understanding of what is to be written about: content knowledge.
Often this is where writers fall down.  AOTA is daunting, but to add content
is often overwhelming.  That is why talent is so important.  And patience.
And humor :). 

Next:  Understanding of how to apply AOTA to content (i.e.,
contextualization).  This is usually the difference between an engineer and
a writer.

Next: Now I may have missed a few minor issues, but next is the key.
Understanding of how to apply organization and structure to content that is
contextualized by AOTA.

How can I possibly organize all of the above in a way that actually "works"
to solve whatever "problem" I am trying to solve.  Certainly, there are US
conventions.  There are also many Asian, European, Central and South
American conventions, etc.  So I can start with a convention and then move
to modifying the convention based on my knowledge of AOTA.

Note that DFD's or other analysis tools are used somewhere in the AOTA to
create an understanding of what must be done to get to the point where
writing actually occurs.

Finally, writing occurs.

Now because of marketing/business issues, most of the above do not occur in
the nice order presented here; that is, writing occurs before understanding
of content contextualized by AOTA occurs.  This is part of the art of
technical writing.  This is also why engineers are often considered as good
as tech writers.  

It has been noted here and elsewhere that the actual act of writing is the
least of the jobs that tech writers engage in.  This is seen here as
contextualizing content based on understanding of rhetorical theory, and
then applying structure to communication (structured writing?-- definitely
rhetoric again).

Tony, no one is actually denying your search for a procedure (step-by-step)
on how tech writing happens.  Personally, I am amazed that any writer wants
to have a step by step procedure.  I like to have a zillion templates in my
back pocket, but as many models of communication and as loose a process to
meet the strictures of a thorny wicked problem.  Structured writing does not
mean a step by step process, but applying structure and organization in a
consistent and rhetorically useful manner.

Writing is a communication art.

Tech writing is a communication art about a specific technical
subject/product/artifact.

Like most interesting things, the way to get there is as important as the
end result.

I hope this helps.  If not, then I will join the others and throw in the
towel.

walden


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