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Anthony Markatos" <tonymar -at- hotmail -dot- com> asked whether positions for
programmer/writer are a new trend.
No, that combination has been around a while...
About 4 years ago I interviewed with a company that wanted a
programmer/writer. I had written to them because I thought they
might need a technical writer, they saw that I also had
programming experience and training on my resume and thought I
would be a good replacement for their current programmer/writer
(who was leaving).
I believe that had a programmer/writer because they were a small
start-up company and did not want to pay for a full-time writer.
About a dozen years ago I worked at a small company that did not
have a separate tech. writer either. Tech. writing was shared
between the programmers and customer support.
And to bring in another techwr-l thread, at that time (a dozen years
ago), I had only heard the term "technical writing" once and had
*no* idea what a technical writer did ... I was planning to go back to
school for linguistics because I thought that my undergrad. studies
in Computer Science only qualified me as a programmer (and I
don't like working as a programmer). Even now, I find that many
people don't know what a "technical writer" does.
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Michele Marques
Technical Writer, CMS Manufacturing Systems
mmarques -at- cms400 -dot- com
905-477-4499 x280
