#10350
Technical communicators frequently collaborate in workplace projects and bring a host of different kinds of expertise to this collaboration. Yet the understanding of communicators’ expertise among managers and subject matter experts is grounded in a view of writing as a finished product and authorship as singular. This article documents many different kinds of 'contributory expertise' employed by writers collaborating to produce articles for publication. Expertise in research, textual composition, visual composition, as well as other kinds of expertise garnered on previous projects is often brought to collaborative projects. Often emerging and developing as a function of collaborative work is expertise in framing the project, conducting review processes, and assessing outcomes. These categories are discussed in some detail to provide practicing communicators with ideas for documenting expertise in their specific workplaces, to provide students with ideas for developing expertise in various areas, and to prov
Henry, James M. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Writing>Collaboration>SMEs
#24459
Teaching Technical Writers to Be Anthropologists 
Ethnographic research, traditionally conducted by academic researchers, yields valuable knowledge on the ways in which workplace cultures and technical communication interrelate. This paper describes an MA course in which practicing technical writers composed workplace ethnographies with a focus on writing and reading processes. Conclusions outline the value of such research for individual technical communicators, for their employers, for the discipline of technical communication, and for the profession.
Henry, James M. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing
