Re: Question: Market for Technical Writing

[Chris Kowalchuk <chris -at- BDK -dot- NET>]

Michele is probably in the happiest situation of all. A techie who can
really write (and also *wants* to write) is a rare and extremely
valuable bird. Fortunately for the rest of us, such persons are often
too busy to do all of their own writing.

This brings me to another observation: the dichotomy between the English
major/writer and the engineer/writer may not be as real as it seems. The
strongest skill either of them can have is logical analysis. We tend to
give engineers credit for this skill unquestioningly (although I've
certainly met some in whom it was questionable), but somebody with a
strong arts background should still have done some rigorous textual
analysis, and maybe even studied the concept of logic in the abstract.
How does this help?  Think about it. Do we really expect a technical
writer to write "beatifully"? Not usually. We expect that this person
will be able to take information from diverse sources, organize it, and
present it in a logical, orderly manner that is predictable, and
therefore easy to follow. That is not "style", that is logical analysis.
Finally, we expect the language within the stucture to be clear and
concise. That's where the style comes in, and that's where, again the
arts major (or anyone who has spent time thinking about such things, and
practising them) often has an advantage.

Pedantic mode > off.  Thanks for your patience

Chris Kowalchuk

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