Agree. I took a non-STEM education then transitioned into coding and after many years I now find myself writing proposals, task specifications, and research reports. I increasingly conduct independent reviews of documents other people have written - not just the quality of the English, but primarily whether they expose us as a business to technical or commercial risk because they are confused or misleading.
And after many late nights fixing documents just before their due dates, I've developed some basic guidelines that aim to increase clarity, including:
* Not using multiple distinct terms for the same thing in different parts of the document
* making responsibilities clear - especially in multi-party contracts! E.g saying "X will do Y" rather than "Y will be done"
* Not expecting the reader to guess what the writer means (e.g. by saying "there will be an impact")
* Not using 'this' after a discussion that references multiple distinct things.
The results might not look like the sort of literature I enjoy reading outside work, but they have much more clarity!
Yesterday, I had the idea that I should try working as a technical writer as a way to realign my past with my future - I don't want the stress of debugging things every day, and I've done this writing informally and always thought, "I wish I could spend more time getting this right but I can't justify it."
An hour and a half later, I had started conversation with the maintainer of an open source project, speccing out a portfolio project with him. It's a bit early to tell, but treating the writing as my only goal, rather than as a supplement to coding work, is doing things to my perspective...there's definitely a need for the humanities in technical environments. A really great piece of writing can do more than instruct clearly, it can motivate creative uses, put the techniques into perspective and lead people away from dangerous ideas. As well, in-depth writing about technology is a great way to review its real utility and add discipline to development that has gone astray.
And there is so much technology that would benefit from doing this better. I think it might be the proper antidote to cargo culting.
And after many late nights fixing documents just before their due dates, I've developed some basic guidelines that aim to increase clarity, including: * Not using multiple distinct terms for the same thing in different parts of the document * making responsibilities clear - especially in multi-party contracts! E.g saying "X will do Y" rather than "Y will be done" * Not expecting the reader to guess what the writer means (e.g. by saying "there will be an impact") * Not using 'this' after a discussion that references multiple distinct things.
The results might not look like the sort of literature I enjoy reading outside work, but they have much more clarity!