Elizabeth Tai | ζˆ΄η§€ι“ƒ πŸ‡²πŸ‡Ύ

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@liztai/116558964865160990

To elaborate more on the corporate writing thing - I was a little too glib in saying that it's the same for writers. Unlike engineers, our work doesn't "break" noticeably. (Though I'd say a lawsuit is a pretty good wake up call lol)

When content "breaks", it's just a slow erosion of brand trust and messaging. It would probably take longer for some corporations to understand the value of content strategists, content designers, tech writers etc.

Despite AI infiltrating every aspect of the writing profession in the corporate field, there's really no replacing editorial judgement and writing flair, which is hard to define.

My concern remains the same: If no junior writers are hired, who can be these specialist writers?

I began my writing career doing the most mundane, achingly boring things. I sharpened my editing skills because at the newspaper, senior editors didn't want to edit submissions from the public, some of them from children. (Let's just say I learned A LOT from editing these submissions.)

Then I wrote "updates" from endless amounts of badly written press releases.

I interviewed people the more flashy journos didn't want to interview.

All these added to my experience.

How do we ensure working writers get the training I did?

#Writing #WritingCommunity #techwriter #techwriting

May 12 at 2:05amWeb
Show threadVirginicusMay 12
@liztai I like that description. β€œFlair” is a good word for the thing LLMs don’t have.
Show threadShine F.May 12
@liztai This is exactly my main concern these days. If novice writers now have to compete with AI, how can they get the training they need? Learning from the ground up is the only way to become a better writer/editor, but if that opportunity is no longer available, I'm afraid we're looking at a bleak future for our profession. 😭
Show threadElizabeth Tai | ζˆ΄η§€ι“ƒ πŸ‡²πŸ‡ΎMay 12
@luthien1126 the only thing I could think of is if university takes up the slack. I think for too long they've depended on companies to "train up" rookies. I can say that a lot of interns I've dealt with are so badly taught you wonder what in the world they were learning in uni. No doubt, however, that I had a unique uni education - both my college and uni literally put me to work, so I started writing proposals, went on assignments, worked for a community radio station in uni. By the time I came out I was ready for work and just had to be onboarded to be used to comopany culture and systems. I once had a communications college student come to me as an intern ... and he didn't know what mailchimp or email marketing was. I was kinda horrified lol.
Show threadShine F.May 12

@liztai Universities can only do so much. No question about getting the best undergrad training from good schools. That's something I was equipped with as well. But as with any other job, it's actual work experience that really provides the best training.

So if fresh grads can't even get a job because companies have replaced their posts with AI, all they have going for them is mostly theoretical knowledge. It's really quite alarming.

Show threadElizabeth Tai | ζˆ΄η§€ι“ƒ πŸ‡²πŸ‡ΎMay 12
@luthien1126 I don't know if it's a thing in Malaysia - I hope it's not a trend in the Philippines!
Show threadShine F.May 12

@liztai It's a growing concern. A senior writer friend of mine has a client who has tasked her to rewrite AI-written content to make it sound...human. πŸ˜‚ So if there are already clients like that, am pretty sure companies are exploring the same route.

So now I guess unis also need to include lessons on spotting AI-generated content in the syllabus. Hahaha huhuhu!