Re: Information developer?

["Sella Rush" <sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com>]

I've been on this list a long time, and seen quite a few "what do we call
ourselves" threads pass by.  On the whole, I've chosen to stick with
"technical writer", but for a purely personal reason.  I can't forget the
years of unpaid fiction writing on the side, and the thrill of finally being
able to call myself a "writer" out loud and mean that someone was actually
paying me.  The newly won title wasn't something I wanted to give up.

But something caught my attention recently that might make me change my
mind.  Rather than taking a title to "elevate" (some might argue it should
be "lower") myself to the status of developer, I might need to find a new
title to differentiate myself from them.

Recently my company did a matrix of our employees technical skills.  One of
the skills listed was "technical writing".  And nearly all the programmers
listed years of tech writing experience.  It was certainly valid--they write
white papers, technical notes, readme files, specs, etc., and respond to
questions from colleagues and potential customers.  They write a *lot*.

But it pretty much usurped my territory.  If the chief scientist is listing
20 years of tech writing experience, how does that make my paltry five years
look?  Is he a better technical writer than I am?  Looking at that matrix,
there is literally nothing I do that can't be done by someone else and,
based on experience, done better.

My response was to find ways to differentiate my kind of tech writing from
theirs.  I added skills such as user documentation, online help, and web
content.

And now suddenly I'm feeling less of a connection to the title "technical
writer".  Dang.

Sella Rush
mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database