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- For the uninitiated, technical writing is writing
without fun (although even tech writers break down: see Gary Conroy's humour
links). It is the stuff of computer help screens, operations manuals
for machines, business procedures, and the general souless monotone of
information that keeps the lights on and economies operating. Technical
writing has also been called technical communication and technical
authorship. The people who do it have traditionally been anonymous hacks
in backrooms, but the cyber revolution has put special demands on their
skills and bid their price up.
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- The fact is that the percentage of the population who
can write with coherence, precision and skill is desperately small (even
amongst the so-called managerial classes). The number of people who can
both understand technology and explain it to the unwashed masses is even
smaller. You might think that technical writers, having such a saleable
skill, could be megastars. That's not the way the world works. They
don't pose in Italian silk suits, or wow crowds with booming amps. It is
probably fair to say that most of the people who read their stuff hate
reading, but have to get a job done. They rarely think about the writer,
except to curse an error or an omission. Technical writing then is not
the place to seek a Nobel Prize. Nevertheless, it does offer a challenge
and a reasonable income to certain group of uniquely talented people.
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- This section of the thormay.net site is provided as a gateway to
this somewhat neglected area of the writer's art, mainly by providing
some links to more specialist sites.
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