{"id":4683,"date":"2015-09-29T10:13:03","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T15:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/?p=4683"},"modified":"2015-09-29T10:19:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T15:19:39","slug":"as-the-world-turns-so-does-our-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/2015\/09\/29\/as-the-world-turns-so-does-our-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"As the World Turns, So Does Our ‘Beat’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"images\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A technical writer named Rebecca muses on the web<\/a> about her choices of employment \u2013 and her freedom to make them. That, as we know, is one of the benefits of being a \u201clone wolf\u201d technical writer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy long-term goal in becoming a technical communicator,\u201d Rebecca writes, \u201cis\u00a0 <\/span>to be an outsourced employee, but without a larger \u2018umbrella\u2019 company sending me my W-2\u2019s each year. I want to dictate the companies I work for and have some control over the projects I accept. I am comfortable putting on that \u2018company\u2019s uniform\u2019 for a temporary time and then moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebecca quotes R. Stanley Dicks in Digital Literacy for Technical Communication: <\/i>\u201cMany more technical communicators will be officially unemployed but constantly working. They will be following the consulting\/temp agency model that already characterizes the work of many communicators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking for herself, Rebecca adds that \u201cI am hoping to open a fortune cookie with just that prediction for my future: \u201cYou will soon find yourself unemployed, but always working.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a paradox, it\u2019s the work of a consultant, which many technical writers, including Encore\u2019s Dennis Owen, actually are. Their roles are well-suited to an increasingly digital economy in a continuing state of emergence.<\/p>\n

Dennis has been something of a pioneer in technical consulting, working in jobs where he\u2019s been needed and can make important contributions, but not working these past few decades in a <\/i>job. And the varied experiences he has had as a result have been invaluable.<\/p>\n

Rebecca expresses something of the same sense of fulfillment: \u201cThe technical writing program I was set to enter was very solid and respected. But in 2001, it wasn\u2019t very focused on digital media. Within a few short years, their \u2018technical writing\u2019 program became their \u2018Technical Communications\u2019 program. It was completely revamped several times over the next few years, as they slowly began to focus the program more on the emerging use of technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad I enrolled back in 2001,\u201d Rebecca adds, \u201cI would have been \u2018getting to the party a little too early\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

So roll with the opportunities as they arise in a steadily changing world. Like anyone else, actually, that\u2019s what \u00a0<\/span>observant technical writers ought to be mindful of in these challenging times. It’s sort of like a newsman’s ‘beat’.\u00a0\u2013 Doug Bedell\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A technical writer named Rebecca muses on the web about her choices of employment \u2013 and her freedom to make them. That, as we know, is one of the benefits of being a \u201clone wolf\u201d technical writer. \u201cMy long-term goal in becoming a technical communicator,\u201d Rebecca writes, \u201cis\u00a0 to be an outsourced employee, but without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-technology","category-the-writing-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4683"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4683"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4692,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4683\/revisions\/4692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}