RE: What do you guys think of STC's new definition for technicalwriter?

["Sean Brierley" <sbrierley -at- Accu-Time -dot- com>]

Not sure what to make of it.

Is technical writer accurate? Do we write or do we communicate? Are we
technical writers or technical authors? 

A place I once worked got merged with another company. At one of our
interdepartmental meetings -- my group with a bunch of developers from
the other company planning a combined strategy -- several of the
developers from the other company had a good ol' laugh about their
technical writers and how their technical writers actually thought they
were authors and wrote books. What a laugh, I tell ya. Wait, they were
and did: they printed a set of user guides for their product ....

LOL!

I think our profession needs a description so it can be categorized by
the government and business. If particular individuals or employers want
to modify that description, then that's fine. But, the umbrella
organization that claims to be our professional organization, the STC,
should also have a working definition. Right?

Cheers,

Sean


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sbrierley=accu-time -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sbrierley=accu-time -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Cardimon, Craig
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 11:07 AM
To: Bonnie Granat
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: What do you guys think of STC's new definition for
technicalwriter?


> 
Bonnie,

I agree with your <highly offensive and outlandish "rant">

I've tried the "technical communicator" thing out on people. I get a
look I can best describe as mental constipation. 

Then they say "What?" or I relieve them of their mental burden, and say,
shrugging, "technical writer." 

In which case, they say, "Oh, well why didn't ya say so?"

We are supposed to explain things simply and clearly, aren't we?

To answer your question, the new title ain't makin' it, in my opinion.
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