Interview

I choose to interview lead prepress demonstrator, George McGuigan, from Heidelberg, US, an international company that manufacturers printing presses as well as prepress and post-press equipment. To clarify, prepress equipment serves to prepare designs for print. The types of machines that exist in prepress function to troubleshoot possible problems that might occur on the printing press and then compensate for those problems.

I went into the interview believing technical writing had almost no place in the graphics industry. However, after talking with George, I realized technical writing held a significant role in the industry; even having the potential to create a competitive edge for a graphics company. I realized this after George immediately responded to my question about how technical writing functioned in the field with, "Technical writing is most important when creating marketing material and in curriculum development. As a product demonstrator, that application is more for learning about new products and/or software versions and competitively positioning our portfolio during presentations." Without sound technical writing, George would not fully understand the prepress products he was demonstrating, nor the audience he was demonstrating to.

While extremely important, he did confirm my assumption that, within the industry, technical writing's existence was minimal. "A very small percentage of my time is used for technical writing. I do write down information about the status of my work in progress, but usage and activity records/reports are kept mainly for product and personal justification." He believes the most beneficial documents pertaining to his job are, “training collateral and competitive analysis reports.” These allow him to get an, “accurate description of the prospect's expectations.” Technical writing allows him to realize his competitors’ offers, thus allowing him to adapt his presentation to overshadow the competition. We concluded the interview with his advice on preparatory courses I should take for this industry. He felt that, “early exposure to application training, basic color understanding, and tradeshows,” would benefit me most. He strongly urged any hands on training since most communication that occurs within the industry is done verbally.