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> people who know how to create docs that look great but who don't understand the subject matter except for what some SME dictated to them.
It's a necessary condition of writing anything well that you understand what you're writing about. However, subject knowledge is not a sufficient condition for producing good writing.
The best solution is presumably TCs who can communicate effectively with SMEs - in one-on-one interview skills, taking part in cross-departmental meetings, having documents effectively reviewed for accuracy in a timely manner and so on - as well as who possess the right literary, graphical, and technical skills to produce effective documentation. They then need to know how construct some kind of valid audience usability testing and to review it in light of experience. That's no mean skill-set.
A certification program that could guarantee people being employed as TCs had those skills would be worthwhile to both employers and practitioners, or so it seems to me.
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