3rd Weblog Post

I will be responding to David, Cathie, and Amy's posts.

David's interview was very informative about the different types of technical writing used in the field of Mechanical Engineering. His interviewee also describes the importance of different types of technical writing in his field, which is useful. The most surprising part of this interview was the stress that was placed on tailoring the writing to the audience. That in itself is not really surprising, but it was surprising that the most difficult part of technical writing might be putting the message into terms that people unused to certain jargon can understand.

Cathie's interviewee, Brice McKoy, also stressed the importance of writing to the audience. This interview was informative on how technical writing is used in the military. By comparing David and Cathie's interviews, differences between the use of technical writing for civilian and military applications. While both must write with the audience in mind, military and government officials must also be sure that all documents are legal and follow strict format guidelines. The importance of technical writing as a means of communication between the government and its citizens surprised me, but only because I had never really thought of it that way before.

Amy's interview with Michael Wald provides some insight into the use of technical writing in a non-engineering occupation. It appears that a pharmacist does not use technical writing as much as an engineer usually does, but communication is still important within the work environment. Written communication is important to a pharmacist, and in it important that it be legible and correct. The most surprising thing about this interview was the fact the the interviewee said that communication and writing "make his job fun and effortless." This is a different view of technical writing than the other interviewees, who emphasized the difficulties of correct technical writing.