The Quality Gap in Technical Writing

From Murdick Robert G. , “Engineering and Research Reports,” Machine Design, Aug. 31, 1961.

See Hirsch Irving Milwitt William Oakes William J. , “Increasing the Productivity of Scientists,” Harvard Business Review, March-April, 1958.

These byways can border on the absurd. At a laboratory where I once toiled, the most muddled communicator on the premises was named to head our proposal effort. He was an ex-professor of physics (the reasons behind this change of occupation might be surmised, but no matter!), and this was justification enough to our quixotic young lab manager. On another occasion I know of, a startled junior executive was called upon to set up an entire publications department on the strength of his having worked in the stockroom of a mail order house.

Subject Guide to Books in Print, R. R. Bowker Co., 1962.

An excellent summation of this subject will be found in Docter Stewart , “Testing the Readability of Engineering Writing,” IRE Transactions on Engineering Writing and Speech, Vol. EWS-4, No. 3, Dec., 1961.

Evidence that lack of writing aptitude among science graduates is by no means strictly an American problem, but worldwide, will be found in Britton W. Earl , “Technical Writing Abroad,” STWP Review, April, 1962. In an on-the-spot survey conducted throughout Europe, Mr. Britton found this theme repeated in country after country, even in places (such as Great Britain and Germany) where educational standards are often held to be much higher than ours.

“Technical editing” would be more explicit, but this term has been usurped to define a whole new level of activity. One of the functions of technical editors is to polish the work of technical writers. While there are many circumstances when this chore is mandatory, such as when the labors of several tech writers must be coordinated into a single finished document, it is ironical that so many technical writers, themselves essentially editors, must be heavily edited before their work can see print.

From “Writing in Industry,” Proceedings of the Conference on Writing and Publications in Industry, sponsored by the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, 1959.

By way of contrast, the Society of Technical Writers and Publishers (STWP) lists well over 3,000 members.

These figures are from Writer's Yearbook (1961).

From Van Sickle F. M. , “But What Are Technical Writers Made Of?” Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Convention of Technical Writers and Editors and the Technical Publications Society, 1960.