Re: Technical vs. writing knowledge and masochists

["Chuck Petch, Editor" <PETCH -at- GVG47 -dot- GVG -dot- TEK -dot- COM>]

Shannon is right, of course. There are many techies who write very well,
usually because they *did* take a number of classes in writing at college. I
realize I was generalizing (even admitted it in my posting) when I said that
techies usually are not aware of the subtleties of writing. But I still believe
that general statement is true in the majority of cases.

Shannon was also right that I wrote in "a blaze of fury." This topic raised an
issue that has bothered me for a long time (hiring technicians rather than
communicators to write documentation), but I foolishly jumped in while my
emotions were still overheated. (You know the old saying about fools jumping in
where angels fear to tread.) In retrospect, I don't think there is much value
in creating division within our ranks. Perhaps it would be better simply to say
that our customers and our profession deserve the best, and I would hope anyone
taking mouse in hand to write manuals professionally will exert some effort to
master the details of grammar, punctuation, conciseness and clarity of
expression.

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Chuck Petch,               | "Get your facts first, and then you can distort
Technical Editor           |  them as much as you please."
"Petch -at- gvg47 -dot- gvg -dot- tek -dot- com"  |                                   -Mark Twain
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