Re: Value of Techwriters

[Ronni Perry <Ronni -dot- Perry -at- DL-NOTES -dot- SMTRW -dot- LANGATE -dot- SPRINT -dot- COM>]

     Barry West wrote:
The whole point of this long-winded explanation is that Herman is correct.
There is a very good chance that you are not dealing with logic or reason
in your situation. You can bring in mountains of evidence and testimonials,
and it may not make any difference. You have to first understand the
mindsets of the people who are resistant to hiring Tech Writers. Once you
know the mindset (and the resulting agenda), you can work with those
mindsets without crashing into them.

Marianne Lambelet responded:
... I'm becoming more convinced as I write this that this resistance to tech
writers/editors may be partly based on something like 'English-phobia'--also,
that the strength of the convictions about writing/writers compounds the
problem.  I've been very curious about this for a while and wonder if anyone
else has any thoughts on this.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have to acknowledge that I have a somewhat different slant on this issue.
Technical communicators are rapidly becoming
much more than writers. We are emerging document engineers, and, with a
sufficient body of research, will become acknowledged
as such.  I think we should sell our services on this level, to the extent that
it's true.  In other words, if we apply a systems engineering
approach to document development and production, then we should be given the
same level of respect as an engineer receives --
we're just from another engineering discipline.

Ronni Perry
TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc.

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