Overlooking the tech writer forest

The Magazine is a fascinating iPad-only periodical that you should try out. However, in a recent edition Jamelle Bouie wrote And Read All Over with the premise that "An implicit network, not overt racism, keeps tech writing dominated by white men." The absurdity of this premise will be immediately apparent to any technical communicator. "Tech writing" is an occupation whose practitioners are primarily female, up and down the organizational chain.

What Bouie is actually writing about is technical journalism, not the profession of technical writing. And that's a shame because there is a great gender-focused story in this occupation, but some other journalist will have to see past his error and disccover the real story. And I hope that women looking into this field aren't discouraged by this inaccurate, if not sensationalistic, headline.

Posted: January 6, 2013 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item