ccr 760: on jones

The way Jones uses the term “information coordinator” seems more appropriate than Slattery’s “textual coordinator” (see below). Maybe it’s because Jones addresses the importance of “writing” in his broader description of how shifts in technology “create new types of writing and writer” (455). “I found that the writing process had changed and that the writers focused less on producing text and more on developing, coordinating, and structuring the newly adopted corporate intranet” (456). I realize this is essentially the same claim Slattery made, but within Jones ethnographic study, the claim seems more valid because Jones comes back to the writing: “Rather than transferring past information, the writers I studied created items as needed, often in response to a change. When something changed, a writer would be tasked with writing an announcement of the change that would appear on the corporate intranet welcoming screen with a link to a document—usually created by the division making the change but sometimes by the writers—detailing the change” (459).

Ahhhhhh… technical writing as I know it.

The following comment from the corporate communications supervisor synthesizes our earlier readings regarding information design: “She noted that this process “’requires a lot more up-front analysis. You have to know your audiences … and the differences between them’” (458). Similarly, Jones states “because the corporate intranet was still new, the writers needed to create an overall intranet structure that worked for all users" (462). The importance of information design and similar activities illustrate the more telling ways writers’ activities are shaped by certain technologies.

Incidentially, I found in the essay the primary reason why there are so many essays extolling the value of and need for technical writers who do more than write… “The writers at times needed to create content for other divisions of the company. But that was seen as a transitory situation: The goal was for each division to create its own reference content” (460). Going back to Slattery for a moment, the “problem” with technology is that it empowers anyone with access to be a writer. This means there is more crappily written content, which professional technical communicators are left to collect, aggregate, edit, mend, and mash-up. Which is the point Slattery and Jones are both attempting to make.

Oh so cyclical is my thinking.