Non-Writers

I have a laser focus that you’re not going to believe. I’ve had this superpower even before I became a writer. But non-writers think I’m exaggerating. If you’re a savant, it’s no big deal to you that you can count how many toothpicks fell out of a box onto the floor in just one glance. But if you’re not, it seems impossible.

Yesterday, I picked up a medical brochure in a doctor’s waiting room. I skimmed the front cover without really reading it, then I flipped the brochure over… and instantly saw the error: “indiviual.”

Can anyone write?

That depends. It depends on what word you mean when you say “write.” Do you mean “make letters on a surface”? Or some other definition?

“Can anyone write?” is a subject for a longer post. I’ll get around to writing it. Someday. Let’s ask the question a different way:

Can anyone be a writer?

No.

I own a phone with a built-in camera. I sometimes use that camera to take photographs. That does not make me a photographer.

Assumptions engage our human emotions.

• Some assumptions are embarrassing. CBC Radio “Morningside” host (the late) Peter Gzowski, long in a job that paid more than a living wage, once made the assumption that retirement tax breaks were available to all… when they require a minimum income.
• Some assumptions are infuriating. In the “Doonesbury” comic strip, cartoonist Garry Trudeau once did a masterful job of deflating privlege rather than ranting about it. In the daily strip for Wednesday, 19 June 1985, Trudeau has Congresswoman Lacey Davenport attempt to raise awareness of homelessness among rich constituents in Palm Beach, Florida. The heart-cry of one distressed-looking lady is “That’s awful! Why don’t they just move to their country homes?”
• Some assumptions are surprising. I grew up in one of the majority of Canadian provinces that celebrate Veteran’s Day, November 11, as a public holiday. When I moved to Ontario, the province that does most of the posturing about honouring our servicemen and servicewomen in the so-called national media, I was taken aback to learn that Ontario does not recognize the holiday. (It merely “observes” it.)

Because assumptions are so closely connected to emotions, you as a technical writer need to be aware that people can get defensive about their assumptions. Part of the defensiveness arises because everyone is unaware of all their assumptions. Being made aware that you have made an assumption can unsettle the ego, regardless of what the assumption was, and unrelated to whether the assumption was valid.