TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Response: Techies know what techies want From:Sella Rush <SellaR -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM> Date:Sun, 30 Mar 1997 16:33:34 -0800
A week or so ago I posted a note about my frustrations with a senior
programmer who often says that other programmers will know what he means
(or that he's giving them what they want). It got lots of very
interesting responses, mostly telling me to stand my ground and tell the
programmer to program--not write.
I just wanted to thank everyone for their responses. My situation (in a
tiny division in a small company where everyone wears 20 hats) makes it
difficult to use job demarcations as a confrontational issue. Also,
confrontation of any kind is not workable here--team work is vital.
Plus, the guy wasn't quite as bad as I seem to have made him out to
be--he is a programmer and he is in charge, and he enjoys it!--but he
does accept a lot of my organizational suggestions.
Interestingly, I actually was hoping for answers to a very specific
question: responding to that one particular arguement of his. The
responses I got back helped me figure out the answer to my own
situation: find out for myself what *our* techies want and establish
common ground to discuss it with him. Simple, huh! In the abstract,
yes, practically, no--it involves getting access to our clients, which
seems to be a universally threatening thing to do. To begin with,
however, I need to take a hard look at my knowledge of technical
terminology and see where I can improve--maybe the real trouble is that
I haven't proven myself in this area yet.
So off I go to build my technical knowledge...see post entitled
"technical noun stacks."
Thanks again!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sella Rush
Applied Technical Systems, Inc. (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington USA
Developers of the CCM Database
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
