atw: Re: SEC: UNCLASS Are you content to be a 'content provider'?

Hi Brian.

Howard has every right to bemoan the lack of clarity in our profession and
rather than being elitist, I believe he just wants the different levels of
'technical writer' (TW) recognised.

We all continue in a learning phase (look what is happening now with XML)
but there are many so-called TW that cannot even create a simple template,
even though they are classed as 'Senior' due to longevity in the role. They
simply do not want to learn or do not have the capacity to learn.

To see the differences in TW levels, I suggest you try advertising for one
and look at the level of ability that comes your way. Then you will see how
woeful the skill set is of many calling themselves a TW.

Also, I personally get sick and tired of TW with little technical skills
always running the agenda. To me, a TW is more than a wordsmith, indexer or
editor, no matter how good they are, so perhaps we need different titles. I
mean, a bookkeeper is NOT an accountant and an articles clerk is not a
solicitor. 

If you see this as elitist, then tough. Spend some more time in the
trenches, widen your skill-set a bit and then see if you want to be compared
to someone who can only provide content (and don't get me wrong Brian, there
are many wordsmiths out there who would kill me in grammar issues - but
then, I do not claim to be a wordsmith as such).

But these are very old arguments Brian and only certification based on skill
set will resolve it. Having a model based on longevity or on a popularist
vote will not resolve it.

My 0.05 as usual.

Cheers,

Bruce Ashley
Principal Technical Writer





-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Clarke, Brian
Sent: Monday, 22 August 2005 1:32 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: SEC: UNCLASS Are you content to be a 'content
provider'?


Hi Howard,

I think it's tremendous that you can produce wonderful prose that is all
neatly formatted on the page.

However, I think that there is a whole spectrum of people who call
themselves 'Technical Comunicators', some of whom are very good with
word smithing and some of whome are very good with page layout tools -
and sometimes the 'word' people struggle with formatting and the
formatters struggle with prose. Technical Communication has been like
that for at least the last 12 years, to my knowledge.
If you are in an organisation that is rich enough to be able to do the
Adam Smith thing with the production of its promotional and other
documentation and you are king of the heap in being able to do all tasks
equally brilliantly, how about allowing that there are others in
different, smaller organisations who have different skill sets, or who
are at different stages along their own, personal developmental paths? 
The view that you seem to be proposing for flag waving is that people
can be called Technical Writers only when they can do all the things
that you can do. Isn't that just a bit narrow-minded or perhaps elitist?

Rather than flag waving, you could do worse than playing a different
kind of political game, where you offer your services to help others,
more junior in their skill development than you, to reach your lofty
position. This would be far more effective than attempting to redefine
what passes for work in your particular organisation. In the process,
you may need to learn some skill transfer skills, which would advance
your career prospects at the same time. You may even end up training the
person whose political skill you have decried, but whom you despise -
what a wonderful turnaround, eh?

Brian.



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