Scary responsibility in job ad

[hessiansx4]

I tend to agree with Richard, although I can see Nadine's point. 

I'm sure it can be frustrating to feel that you are tasked with "helping" someone (who is making way more money than you are) with basic language skills.

On the other hand, "we" are all in this together. Products are designed/created/ tested/documented/marketed/maintained by a TEAM. I was once tasked with negotiating training costs for a very expensive application simply because I was a native English speaker. I could have said "not my job", but didn't. And it turned out to be a great learning experience; I had the opportunity to work with some folks I might otherwise not have had the chance to. (And I found out I was a decent negotiator!)

________________________________
From: "Combs, Richard" <richard.combs at Polycom.com>
To: Writer <generic668 at yahoo.ca>; framers <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
Sent: Friday, October 7, 2011 6:52 AM
Subject: RE: Scary responsibility in job ad

Writer wrote:

> A local company listed this as one of the responsibilities in a job ad
> for a technical writer:
> 
> "coach engineers to improve their writing skills"
> 
> It makes me laugh and cringe in equal measures.

I'm really surprised at the overwhelmingly negative reaction to this ad. Coaching engineers is cited as just one of the responsibilities; without seeing what the others are, I have no opinion of the ad as a whole, but this specific responsibility certainly doesn't make me laugh, cringe, fear for my future, or get defensive about my profession. 

I'm asked (yes, often by engineers) language/grammar/writing questions fairly frequently, and in the past when things weren't so busy, I did the occasional short presentation on some language/writing issue at the end of a team meeting. These were well received, and I often got follow-up questions. 

The engineers I know are intelligent people who understand the value of communicating clearly. They want to improve their writing skills in order to communicate more effectively with each other, managers, and other departments (sales, support, etc.), as well as with me. 

IMHO, sharing what I know with people who see the value of learning it makes me more valuable. And it's rewarding for me, not cringe-inducing. 


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richard.combs at polycom.com
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs at gmail.com
303-903-6372
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