Talk:Technical writer

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--Qhaliq 17:38, 5 February 2006 (UTC)QhaliqHmmmm. There is no article on Technical communication (it's a redirect to this page), which is what the STC focuses on. The role of Technical communication/a Technical communicator is a superset of Technical writing/a Technical writer...—iFaqeer (Talk to me!) 04:28, Nov 30, 2004 (UTC)

Absolutely right. How's this for a start? Elf | Talk 02:33, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 Technical writing vs. professional writing 2 links to techwriter.com 3 grammar changes 4 Creating separate articles for 'Technical Writer' and 'Technical Writing'

[edit] Technical writing vs. professional writing

So what's the difference between "technical writing" and "professional writing"? I've seen professional writing talked about, but I don't really know what it is. -- Creidieki 21:36, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

A professional writer is one who gets paid for writing. Could be technical writing, travel writing, fiction writing, whatever. Most technical writers are professional writers--even though I do it and enjoy it, I can't imagine anyone doing it only for fun (compared to, say, many unpublished fiction writers). Elf | Talk 04:16, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

LOL. You can't? Is somebody paying you for your work on Wikipedia?? Tell us who! SBHarris 03:51, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] links to techwriter.com

I have removed the links to techwriter.com because this site specifically promotes a particular commercial organisation and appears to contain little general information about technical writing per se. If there is such info somewhere on the site then any new link should be directly to that information IMOɲ.

[edit] grammar changes

I changed this: Technical writers are responsible for creating media that are helpful, accurate, comprehensible, and accessible to the intended audience.

To this: Technical writers are responsible for creating media that is helpful, accurate, comprehensible, and accessible to the intended audience. AuroraMae 03:09, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

The latter is correct: since "media" describes a single object, it isn't grammatically appropriate to use "are" to describe it -- even if plurality is assumed. And yes, I realize the irony in affirming a corrected "correction" on the edit side of a Technical writer page when concision is paramount.

[edit] Creating separate articles for 'Technical Writer' and 'Technical Writing'

What does everyone think about creating a separate page for techical writer and technical writing? The whole 'technical communication'section should have a different title, as a new article is going to be created for that subject. If no one objects, I'm going to change the header and split the articles. AuroraMae 03:23, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I made some changes: I changed 'technical communication' to 'qualifications' and reorganized. I also added a 'methodology' sub-header. The article still needs work, but now its organized better and makes more sense as an article about technical writers.AuroraMae 03:39, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I think its best to have a separate product page from the skill page in all professions. Often the end user of the product doesn't (or need not) care about the skill required to produce the product. Likewise, staffing professionals and customers of the skill don't care about (or are overwhelmed by) the critical details of the product, which is why they must hire someone with the skill. I added user guides and documentations as the product pages. Oicumayberight 08:39, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

I split the articles; technical writer is its own entity now, as is technical writing.AuroraMae 14:14, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Good idea. The last version basically defined a technical writer as the guy responsible for upkeep of documentation. That confuses the work product with the work. "A scientist is responsible for keeping up the supply of fresh scientific papers..." SBHarris 18:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)