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From: "Finch, Ted" <tfinch -at- ktech -dot- com>
>
> Do you think that poets and fiction writers should not be technical
> writers? It is Monday I am a little lost
I think it depends on the person.
>From what I understand of the history of technical writing, back in the 70's and 80's, most of the documentation was produced by the engineers or programmers for engineers/programmers, so it was basically unusuable by any "normal" person. In the late 80's, companies got hip to the existence of tech writers, and began hiring left and right, offering nice salaries to entice writers to join up. Unfortunately, many people with a degree in literature or the humanties began seeing the field as a way to use their degrees and pay the bills. Many of these people didn't have an interest in technology, so they spent their time making docs look pretty without really paying attention to the content. Gradually, the companies got repeatedly burned and realized they needed to make sure the people they hired could do the job - thus, the emphasis on a technical background and specific software skills in job ads. There is still a strong bias against lit/English/Humanities people being able to to this
kind of work.
Note that I'm not saying that a humanities background is a bad thing; the real key to being a successful tech writer in an interest in the inner workings of technology, and nothing about literature/humanities directly equate to a disinterest in technology (in fact, I have a bachelor's in English, and the program from which I obtained my Master's degree was heavily lit-based).
Jeff
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