Re: Pronouns, sexism, audiences, blah blah blah

[Shannon White <shannonwhite -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

As I was reading my digest this morning, I thanked God for the final
posting, from Andrew Plato, which attempted, by pointing out simple
truths such as Keep It Simple Stupid, to end the inane threads that
have been running.  He did it  in a much more delicate way than I was
prepared to put it.

I shudder to think how much time has been spent on
him/her/it/them/those guys/them morons/etc.  Problem-solving for the
end-user be damned -- we must talk amongst ourselves about pronouns and
politics and linguistics.

Ditto for RoboHelp vs ForeHelp and what, exactly, makes a technical
writer.

Apparently, from what I've seen on this list recently, a desire to be a
technical writer makes a technical writer.  No one seems to mind if
he/she has proper training, education, etc.  If the junior high school
English teacher gave you a B, that's good enough!!  How many threads
have been the intellectual equivalent of "I used to specialize in flame
broiling down at the BK, but I really want to be a tech writer.  How
should I market myself?"  It is perhaps the desire to be tech writers
by people who are clearly unprepared that makes the job environment
difficult for those of us who are.  But, hey, anyone can write, right?

And, please, for the love of God, flame me for pointing out the
obvious.  It would have to be more interesting than the dribble lately
on here.

Shannon


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