In my readings almost immediately I noticed a trend. The biggest question or issue that Technical Communication/Technical Writing faces is that there is no accurate definition for what it is and/does. Depending on who you ask you may hear that there is no definition at all. To tell the truth I feel that technical writing really is all of the above (in terms of what the authors say about it). I understand why those in the profession want to have a formal definition to give when asked about what they do, but on the other hand I feel that it's not that necessary. I say that because in some respect I feel like my career kind of stands out like technical writing without a definition. I work in Human Resources, everyone has heard about it and every company has one, but really what is HR? I can't define it because it encompasses so much you can never cover it all.
I agree with the article that it has gotten so big it is almost impossible to accurately define it and not leave something out. It seems as though there is nothing that does not include technical writing. There are manuals/instructions for every thing you purchase I mean really what can you do that doesn't at some point require a technical writing. I think people think to technically about technical writing. Carolyn Miller's piece really shows that when the Faculty members practically went at it about putting technical writing as a humanities course. I found that so ridiculous that anyone would actually argue against it. Maybe I am weird, but I find technically writing to be humanistic; it may not be mushy, tear-jerking, or emotional, but it has to everything to do with people. Without technical writing little Bobby's dad couldn't build his swing set, and those same members on the committee probably would know how to post their grades or set-up their computers.
In my opinion technical writing is apart of our everyday lives.
For me it literally is and not only on a professional level at work when we implement new software and programs, but even at home. I love video games, RPG games are one of my favorite types. My boyfriend and I just bought an X-box 360 and got Fable II since we loved Fable I. Part of our gaming is purchasing the guide along with it and I am the navigator to tell my boyfriend what's next. Without technical writing I we would be missing so many things in the game and although it may sound comical to those reading, but it is completely true my boyfriend and I use that time as bonding and believe it or not it is so much fun and is what makes our relationship different and special for us. So for me technical writing doesn't need a definition to validate it, some things just are what they are.
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You make an interesting connection between the lack of easy definitions about certain fields and the fact that they are found everywhere. I'm guessing such professionals, like those in human resources and in technical writing, serve critical functions but do so in so many different ways in different contexts, that it's hard to think of all these professionals as doing the same thing in the same way.
ReplyDeleteI think there's two likely contributing factors: 1. we have popular representations of other professions that provide us with a sense of what they do, even without a formal definition (think of how many TV shows show us the work of doctors, lawyers, police officers, etc.), and 2. these popular representations mask the complexity and variation within these professions. It may not help that technical writers, for instance, are often not credited on the texts they write; it's like all tech writers are ghost writers.
Technical writing surely is a part of our everyday lives, although it's surprising how often one hears of poorly written instructions, hears advice to skip the tutorial, or finds online help systems unhelpful. Is this just stuff written by non-professionals? Is there some disconnect between the design of technical documents and the type of information we typically need? I know I often skip large portions of technical documents; but I'm not sure this is a bad thing either.
I have a friend who has worked on technical manuals for video games, specifically the Civilization series from Firaxis games, and I have an article coming out about video games and technical writing, so I can appreciate the connection you mention between the two. I was always the one, as well, who would read the manual to figure everything out, while my brothers would jump right in and start messing around with things. There is much more personal value to much technical writing than we often think. consider a recipe passed down from generation to generation. Here's a document that is not simply factual information in a database to the family it belongs to.