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In general, yes, but in this case I disagree. (Even though I'm a hefty guy anyway.)
I was surprised at the respect given both to our department and the individual "engineers" (information engineers) by the developers, and one had the distinct impression that it was at least partly because of the title. When you have "Engineer" in your department name and job title, it makes a noticeable difference. Or at least that was my experience. At that company. Respect was also gained by the quality and professionalism of the people in the department, but I'm just saying. (E.g., they'd invite us to design meetings, early on, to comment on the UI, and would welcome our input. And you'd hear them say, "Don't forget to invite the Information Engineers." It was just different, and not just by nature of a progressive environment, because it was oppressive in other ways.)
That's one example. You'd have to ask others with that title (or similar) for their own experience. And in the writing community, it was a prestigious title. But mainly it looked great on a business card. :) Sorry, can't give you any more proof than that. (Although others in the department shared my sentiments and reported similar experiences.)
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: Combs, Richard [mailto:richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 1:31 PM
To: Steve Janoff (non-Celgene); 'techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com'
Subject: RE: Post on Technical Writing vs. Technical Communication
Steve Janoff wrote:
> PS - By the way, I like Information Engineer better than Information
> Developer, which I'd also had at an earlier job. The latter just
> doesn't have the same heft as the former.
It's been my experience that whatever "heft" a tech writer has didn't come from the job title.
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
------
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