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At 05:53 AM 7/21/98 -0700, Porrello, Leonard wrote:
>By allowing our coworkers to wallow in grammatical illiteracy (to whatever
>extent) ultimately debases our value as technical communicators. One of the
I dunno, but in all of the technical communication jobs
and contract gigs I've had, I've never been told that
I'm to eradicate grammatical illiteracy in the company.
As a matter of fact, one of the challenges in several positions has
been to overcome the "grammar cop" reputation of
previous tech writers.
Our job as technical communicators is to communicate
effectively. If you're able to convince your co-workers
to no longer wallow in illiteracy, that's great, but in
all likelihood, unless you're the boss and can enforce
compliance, you'll have to work pretty hard at it.
In my opinion, a better use of one's time in most tech
writing jobs is to build effective working relationships with
coworkers and particularly, the experts on whatever is being
documented. If you can do both, more power to you,
but most of us have ample challenge in doing just
the one.
A weaning strategy that I've found quite effective is
not to wean at all--if the material going out really must
be good, the technical writer is likely to be one of the
only ones within the company to notice and care.
Thus, it's your job. If the material doesn't really need
to be that good AND the original writer has the time
and inclination to improve, offer feedback and help.
Keep in mind (and of course your company might be
different) that as a rule, technical communicators are
hired to effectively provide information, and the
more effectively you provide information, the better
the company looks and the better you look. I've
never found that co-workers who are disinterested
in writing have debased my value to the company--as
a whole, they've probably augmented my value.
Eric
*********************************************************
* Eric J. Ray, ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com, http://www.raycomm.com/
* TECHWR-L Listowner, co-author _Mastering HTML 4.0_
* _HTML 4 for Dummies Quick Reference_, and others.
* RayComm, Inc., currently accepting contract inquiries.
