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> Actually, it's a pretty good analogy for the situation
> as I perceived it at first.
You perceived a lot more than I could out of "I have
been asked by a client to write a letter that communicates
corrective action information (based on the customer's
complaint) to the customer."
> However, from the first post that started this thread,
> I got the impression that she was being asked to do
> something *instead of* the tech support people, which
> is a different kettle of fish.
You mean as opposed to being asked to write a software
manual "instead of" the software developers, a user manual
"instead of" the engineers or a service manual "instead of"
the manufacturing technicians?
> There is a difference between given a chance to do
> something new, and having someone else's job dumped on
> you.
The entire profession of technical writing exists because
of decisions made to "dump" the writing that used to be
part of the job of an engineer, programmer or "someone
else" who has technical knowledge that needs to be
communicated to those who need it because that
"someone else" is either unable to do it effectively or
needs to devote the time and energy required to do it
to other parts of their jobs that can't be as easily offloaded
to others "instead of" them. Are tech support people
somehow less deserving of writing support?
I was not aware that the job market for technical writers
had improved to the point where writers felt this comfortable
declaring what kind of writing about technical subjects
should and should not properly be the responsibility of a
technical writer. I guess things must be going better than
I thought they were.
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