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> Hello, everyone! This is my first post to the list, so please be kind.
> I am wondering if anyone can tell me the current state of the
> relationship
> between writers and the esteemed wizards, engineers, in
> industry. I ask because
> I work with a smart young woman, graduating soon with a
> degree in Computer
> Engineering. Yesterday she ranted on Tech Writers as
> "useless, overpaid, and
> not altogether capable" of understanding what she and her
> peers do. Is this
> typical? Or is this simply the musings of a naive young
> intellect, without
> exposure to the real world? Just hoping it's different in real life.
>
> Graham Fredrickson
Graham,
I've run into a similiar problem here when we bring in new SMEs that
haven't worked with technical writers before.
One fellow didn't have a clue as to what tech writers do. He needed
copies of a couple of our documents, and I sent them to the printer for
him. To my horror, about a week later, he introduced me to a client as
"the person who prints our documents when we need them."
We were then assigned a project together. He seemed reluctant to work
with me at first (what do I need her for), but after going over the doc
together and explaining my changes, additions, deletions, reorganization
etc., he was amazed! "You're really good at this!" (Duh!) This example
is the most blatant I've come across, but I've heard that line plently
of times from SMEs first realizing the value of tech writers.
It's your job to educate the SMEs. Do it just by being good at your job.
Of course, it may be that David is right, and the young woman is just a
twit! :-) Good luck.
Karen
P.S. After the introduction incident I spent a week setting up an
intranet site where employees can print PDF versions of any of our tech
docs themselves!
