No, I do not agree that it is a ridiculous and thankless job. Educate
those around you as to your true competencies, which are plain language
writing, procedural writing, clear and concise communication, liaison
between developers and others in the company, user analysis, task
analysis, usability, user performance support, user experience
improvement, contributing to other departments such as QA, customer
support, training, and even marketing & sales, and helping maintain the
company image in user-facing communication.
Our profession is one of relationship building -- first with our users,
but also with SMEs, development colleagues, and other stakeholders. We
are one of the few professions that interface with nearly every other
department in a company. We are one of the few employees who gets to see
the big picture of what is being developed. Take ownership of your
publications. You schedule the meeting, outline your information needs
in a documentation plan and get stakeholder signoff on it. Their signoff
implies acceptance of the terms therein, including the requirement for
SMEs to be available for interviews, and for timely reviews of drafts.
State that clearly in your doc plan.
See yourself as the consummate professional communicator that you are,
and approach your job that way. They NEED us badly, because few others
can really do what we do. It's a shame we have to educate our employers
and colleagues, but it comes with the territory. And it's still the best
profession ever.
--Beth
Beth Agnew, Professor
Co-ordinator, Technical Communication Program
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology
Toronto, ON
http://www.senecatechcomm.com
raj nair wrote:
At times, I wonder why technical writers are the least common denominators in a software
company. For example, if I submit a document for review, people schedule it for the last
few hours of a business day. This amply explains the 'importance' given to that task.
Moreover, I have to work with arrogant developers, testers, SMEs, and managers, who don't
care a damn about the information needs of technical writers. There is also an absurd
level of "technical apartheid" that at times gives a really wretched feeling.
Since a majority of the technical writers have no programming background or releavant
domain knowledge, people find it very easy to dismiss them as irrelevant irritants.
Ultimately, the conclusion that I can arrive at is that this is a ridiculous and
thankless job. Do you agree?
Raj
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