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Subject:Re: Value of Techwriters From:mkeene -at- UTKVX -dot- UTK -dot- EDU Date:Wed, 31 May 1995 08:44:48 -0500
To Herman Holtz's response (use an emotional appeal) to Rose's request (how
to prove techwriters are necessary and not just nice), I'd like to add
two points:
1. Why not use *both* the stats (from Ramey and Redish) and the emotional
appeal?
2. My fading memory suggests that Herman Holtz published his excellent
argument (maybe in Tech Comm) 10 or so years ago, in a piece wherein he
described convincing a firm with 30 engineers and one tech writer that
adding 4 or 5 more tech writers would give them about 30% more
engineering time spent doing more engineering. I remember how important
that article was in arguments I was making to clients; I paraphrased it
as something like "Why spend $60K/yr. time doing a $20K/yr. job?" (that
shows you how long ago it was). I've lost that piece, tho, and even lost
the cite for it. Herman, if it was yours, and if as I suspect I've
garbled the numbers, why don't you give us the cite and the right numbers?
