Anaïs BELLOCHE, Ricarnie STERLIN

Paris Diderot University, July 2019

Abstract

Technical writing is a quite recent profession. A​ccording to the ​Society for Technical Communication ​(STC), it emerged in the US during World War II. It took time before the boundaries of the profession were defined. First companies had to face the fact that they needed technicals writers to do the job that was once done by Subject Matter Expert. The profession has evolved and the documentations rules and aspects have changed. Images became an integral part of technical documentations, making them more accessible and easier to understand. The question raised in the present article is whether it is the technical writers’ task to create and manage images or if the task has to be endorsed by a specialist in illustration. Opinions differ. It seems that there is a gap between those who have been exercising the profession for decades and those who are new in the field.

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Image creation and management: a task for technical writers? (PDF)