Stuck in Our Ways or Ready to Change?

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 | Runoff, Technical Communication

Technical communicators on the Web have been discussing how tech comm is changing and how we may be an endangered species, perhaps most recently on the LugIron Software blog. Recent issues of STC’s Intercom magazine have addressed this concern and offered advice about how to survive, almost as if they’re talking about how to make it through an impending natural disaster.

This kind of talk is a bit disconcerting for someone like me who has been in the field for only several years. I came out of the professional and technical writing program at Utah State University with certain concepts of what tech comm is. I credit my degree most directly with the fact that I got my job, and my responsibilities were pretty much what I expected they would be. I was later asked what had surprised me the most upon getting into the field after college, and I had a hard time thinking of something.

Now, after only a few years, technical communicators are being told to change or risk becoming obsolete and unemployed.

I agree that tech comm isn’t the same as it was five years ago. I’m not doing exactly the same work I was doing when I started with my current employer. Some things are the same, and I hope I’ve improved at them, but other things aren’t.

My question for myself is whether as someone relatively new to the field, am I in place to adapt and ride the wave of new technical communication, or am I stuck in the concept I gained of tech comm in college?

It’s common for newbies to do things the way they were taught for a while until they’ve matured enough in the practice to begin to adjust, to arrive at new and better ways of accomplishing tasks. I think I’ve reached that point, but I’m still trying to learn better ways of communicating in general. Now the field experts say we’re in for a big change.

On the other hand, am I new enough in the field that it’s easy to shift gears? Am I not yet set in my ways? Do I have a fresh perspective? I expect that those who have been technical communicators for 15 or 20 years may have the opposite questions for themselves: Am I too stuck in my ways to change, or do I have the experience and maturity in the field to make necessary shifts?

I’m a fan of some change, and the more I like the change that’s coming, the more I look forward to it and dig in when it arrives. But the new technical communication has to make a difference in the experience of the users, whereas developments like single sourcing and DITA offer benefits to the authors and have little return for the audience. That’s what will make a new solution worth embracing and celebrating: the impact on the user experience.

I think LugIron Software has some of us watching out of the corner of our eyes to see what they’re going to do. When I started reading the blog, I could tell someone there knew something about tech comm. The aforementioned post indicated that they have something up their sleeve—perhaps an authoring tool designed by technical communicators for technical communicators. I think the time is right for something like that. We’re waiting for it. They’re not letting on what they’ve got, but I’m looking forward to seeing it.

One of the limitations of having been in the field for only a few years is that I’m not prepared to make predictions as some do about where tech comm is going. I’m not inclined to do that anyway. I think our field is still looking for the solution that will knock people’s socks off and show the world that tech comm is valuable on all sides. Who knows, maybe the person who will hit on that solution is you.

Share This