Re: who's out there?

[Hank Stanley <arjohns -at- ADNC -dot- COM>]

At 11:17 PM 3/3/97 -0500, you wrote:
>this may seem like a dumb question, but is this a group merely for people who
>are writing in highly technical fields (software, engineering--at least those
>things seem highly technical to me) or are there also people here who are
>working in less "technical" professional writing fields?  I am more
>interested in the latter, which is why I am wondering if I have subscribed to
>a list which is actually relevant to me.  Thanks--robbyn scribner
>
>
>
        I don't think that's a dumb question at all.  Are tech writers really
writers?
        What is the criteria?  Is the degree of creativity the same in writing a
user's guide than it is in writing a poem?  Is the only difference in
writing an O&M manual and a short story the audience for which each is
written?
        I write review articles for a national trade publication, but I've never
writtern a novel.  But, I know people who have novels sitting in the bowels
of their hard drives that they keep tinkering with on the weekends, like so
many half-completed pleasure craft resting on blocks in the back yard.
But, are they less creative (or lesser writers) than others who have been
published?   Would tech writers really be readable (or saleable) if their
audience weren't compelled to use their work to learn how to use a piece of
software or install some hardware?

        As far as an answer to Robbyn's question.  There are "regular" writing
lists out there (and I'll wager most of the people who subscribe to this
list also subscribe to those and will provide you with addresses) but this
one is different than those because of the urgency of a deadline or other
particualr need in deal with "commerically-expedient" writing.


Hank Stanley                              arjohns -at- adnc -dot- com
The word artisan                 70323 -dot- 2107 -at- compuserve -dot- com

"Language is a poor enough means of communication as it is.
So we ought to use all the words we've got."
                        Henry Drummond
                        Inherit the Wind - Act 1, scene II

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