atw: Re: Apart from using Word 2002, what else am I doing wrong?

Well, Howard (S),

Thank you for your thoughts on this.

...and thanks to Michael (L) for his worthy reply.

Technical Communicator has been a valid job description
since at least 1971, when the (US) based but global
Society of Technical Writers and Editors changed its
name to the Society for Technical Communication.

Yes, most of us are also writers - and researchers /
interviewers come journalists, illustrators, typographers,
desktop publishers, computer wizards, troubleshooters,
graphic designers and finished artists and some of us are
also trainers teachers / lecturers. Most of us also bring
to our roles various skill sets and experiences from a
broad spectrum of sometimes seemingly unrelated
professions.

In a former career of mine as an Advertising Copywriter, I
found that job title entirely inadequate to encompass
the tasks of my profession.  Conceptualizer or
Professional Dreamer might have been closer. A role
where one has to visualize concepts (even radio scripts)
and play them out in one's mind's eye before ever putting
pen to paper or finger to keyboard.  This role, along
with my stints of freelance journalism / reviewer for a
small local (to me) entertainment magazine, were all
about reaching out for the heart and soul of your
audience and communicating to those people in a way
that they understood and with which they felt comfortable.
Targeted communication to and for defined audiences.

That aside, think about just how many roles you must
perform in your daily job and how little of what you do
in total, is writing - and that the ultimate aim of that
writing is communication.  Then you might look more kindly
on the Technical Communicator job title.

Our business is communication.  The difference between a
communicator (who might have to use any medium available
to communicate a message) and a writer being that almost
everyone who was trained to write at school (as in put a
string of words down on paper with a pen) thinks that
they are "a writer", whereas creating something
communicative, in whatever form is best understood by,
most useful for and usable by a given audience, is an
art form in itself, not to be underestimated.

Cheers,

Michael

Michael E. Granat
Qualified Good Tech Writer Dude
Fellowship Of The Ring Of Tech Writers, Yeah Baby!
T/as Write Ideas
E-mail: mailto:writeideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: <http://home.pacific.net.au/~megranat/>
Without Prejudice.
E&OE.


-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Howard Silcock
Sent: Sunday, 23 January 2005 18:48
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Apart from using Word 2002, what else am I doing wrong?


All very interesting, Michael - glad to hear you managed to get some support
from the list.

I gather you feel 'Lethargic Man' is not a fitting description. Well, it's
not meant to be a substitute for your job description. But there's no
escape, Michael. If you do call yourself 'technical communicator', it might
get transformed into something like 'comical mutant - once rich' ...

While we're on the subject, why do so many of us now call ourselves
'technical communicators' rather than 'technical writers' ( = 'cleaner, rich
twits')? Is it to make ourselves more employable? My own opinion - to which
you're *all* entitled - is that *writing* is the core of what we do. 

Howard


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