Consulting with Technical Writers
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Date
2003
Authors
Powers, Shelley
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Description
Students in the University of Texas at Austin's Electrical Engineering program
sell t-shirts with the slogan “Get a real major” emblazoned on the back. That tshirt
means “We do our thing over here, and you do yours over there. You don’t
quantify; we do. We can prove that we have the right answer; you’re hard
pressed to pull that off. You don’t know what I’m talking about, and I don’t get
you either. Please just leave me here safe.” Writing consultants–especially those
from humanities backgrounds –run headlong into this sentiment. The simplest
and most helpful thing we can do to address it is to adapt a little. Sure, we may
not be comfortable handing down The Law about language. But we can give
clear guidelines that will keep the "grammar grader" from ticking three more
points for mechanics from the writer's paper. We can work within the style and
format guides stipulated by the writer’s instructor regardless of how wacky they
may appear. We can offer suggestions to make writing as rational as possible–
and that is exactly what we ought to do to help writers produce good technical
writing.