Re: Technical writer survey: What should we really call ourselves?

[Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Well, except that not all tech communicators are tech writers. Bit if  
you're a tech writer then yes you should call yourself a tech writer.

---
Bill Swallow
http://techcommdood.com
Sent from my iPhone.

On Aug 10, 2009, at 1:56 PM, "Karen Field Carroll" <kfcarroll -at- cox -dot- net>  
wrote:

>
> To me, calling ourselves things like "information developers,"  
> "information
> architects," or even the clunky "technical communicators" belies a
> fundamental principle of our profession: to make the complex simple.
> "Technical writer" is (at last) a term most non-tech writers "get,"  
> and the
> other terms just make us sound pretentious and desperate to be seen  
> on equal
> footing with our IT cohorts, the developers, qa analysts, etc.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+kfcarroll=cox -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kfcarroll=cox -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On  
> Behalf Of
> Gene Kim-Eng
> Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 10:30 AM
> To: TechWr-L
> Subject: Re: Technical writer survey: What should we really call  
> ourselves?
>
> During the dotcom years, various tech writer forums I attended were  
> often
> rife
> with "what should we call ourselves?" discussions, mostly initiated by
> people
> who had come to the conclusion that new delivery methods (online,
> multimedia, UI
> embedding, etc.) had somehow become more important as defining
> characteristics
> of "the profession" than "technical" and "writing."  In more recent  
> times I
> have
> heard less of this, and had begun to think that these "the medium is  
> more
> important than the message" folks had left along with the Pets.com  
> sock
> puppet,
> but apparently I need to rethink that perception.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dave C" <davec2468 -at- aim -dot- com>
>> But mostly I write for the print or electronically-distributed media,
>> so Technical Writer, then, is a badge worn proudly and appropriately.
>>
>> Why fix what's not broken?
>
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> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing  
> Table of
> Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
> 2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
> http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
>
> Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
> authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
> once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version  
> control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help  
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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