Re: who is qualified to be the tech writer god(dess)

[GM Vick <gmv -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

I have been rightfully called on the carpet for my prejudice that writers
are born, not made. I still cling to it, to an extent, but acknowledge
that technical communicators can be educated, not born.

However, I strongly believe that we cannot educate a person who doesn't
want to learn a new role. I say this as a hiring manager. When I interview
people, I don't necessarily look for a predefined skill set, but I insist
on demonstrable proof that they are both ABLE AND WILLING to take on the
job of learning the skills they need. As a manager, I don't have the time
to hold someone's hand through the learning process, they need to be
self-motivated. Maybe this makes me a bad manager, but I doubt it.  My
employees consistently set company records for efficiency and their morale
is high. Managing them is the best part of my job.

We can't compare employees to high school students. A student is in school
expressly to learn, and teachers are paid expressly to help them learn.
My employees are hired to churn out content for product builds. I am hired
to manage that process, as well as other tasks. Every hour I have to spend
in training is time taken from other tasks.




>>I used to teach high school English. There were very few students that
walked
into my class being "good" writers. There were a few that had a nice way of
turning phrases, a few that were good at organizing their thoughts, but I
didn't have any students that turned in a perfect draft right off the bat.
Since it is extremely common that people graduate high school and college
without competent writing skills, I find it ridiculous that its a common
belief
that if you can't write now, you can't write ever. Its not right! (sorry,
couldn't help the alliteration)

>>A normal person with a normal amount of intelligence can learn to write
well. It takes time and work.

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=