Techwriting vs. infodesign, take II

["Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Bernie McCann took up the challenge in my first post on the subject
of information design versus technical writing.

I said <<Here's the problem: most technical writers also do these
[many] things nowadays, as a few days spent reading techwr-l will
demonstrate.>>

Bernie questioned <<the use the word "most" (in this case).  What
is the evidence?>>

Purely anecdotal. Over the past 5 years, I've seen ongoing
discussions that strongly suggest that most technical writers do far
more than write: we edit, design, do usability testing, etc. etc. It
might be interesting to survey this at some point (I'm not
volunteering) and write it up as an article for Intercom or some
other periodical, but as a blanket generalisation, I feel comfortable
with it: few of us are specialists, though most of us have one
activity that we consider our main strength (probably writing).

<<I'm sure that a large number... of technical writers try to be
technical illustrators these days, but copying screen shots into
publications is not, with respect, technical illustration.>>

Good clarification. What I meant to say is that techwhirlers commonly
seem to supply screenshots, design layouts and produce final products
rather than simply writing text and turning it over to desktop
publishers and graphic artists to finalize.

<<the use of Techwr-l as a accurate indicator of numbers is
misleading...  My personal analysis indicates that Techwr-l is used
predominantly by software industry writers.>>

I wouldn't disagree with that, but the original question was asked in
this precise context: what do _techwhirlers_ think? How
representative we are of technical writing in general is open to
debate, but there is a good population of non-computer industry
writers on the list. (We've done occasional "what work do you do?"
surveys on the list and always get a broad range of responses.)

<<"Techwriting" suggests a person, to me, and "infodesign" suggests a
team.>>

And strictly speaking, I don't think that anyone doubts for a minute
that a skilled specialist is better at that specialty than a skilled
generalist. Still, I suspect there are plenty of us who are "good
enough" to fill in for a team of specialists in a pinch, and who are
often required to do so.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it."--Author unknown


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