Re: Non-technical, Technical Writers

[Karen Kay <karen -at- WORDWRITE -dot- COM>]

Andrew Plato said:
> The question was: when faced with someone who has misrepresented themselves
> as a technical person, what do you do?

This is one question.

> How do you handle a person who clearly cannot deal with the
> technology yet are supposed to write about that technology?

This is another.

> Do you help them? Fire them?  Stick them in an editors
> position?

This depends on how you answer the first two questions. Not being able
to deal with a technology is different from misrepresenting yourself.

> What is the answer to solving the problem of non-technical,
> technical writers?

This is the question that people have been discussing, that you don't
want them to.

> There have been countless discussions on this group about the "definition of
> a technical writer".  In my opinion, the definition of a technical writer is
> wholly summarized in the job title "technical writer": a person who is
> technical and writes documents. Period, end of discussion.  Add all the
> bulls--t you want to your skill set, if your not technical or you don't
> write, you're not a technical writer.

Define technical. Technical knowledge or technical ability? If you
limit it to technical knowledge, what kind of technical knowledge?

> Sorry, but this group has a nasty tendency to use any hot issue to blather
> about their personal pet peeves, completely ignoring the topic of the
> discussion.

People are not ignoring the topic of the discussion; you framed it poorly.

Karen
  karen -at- wordwrite -dot- com