Hi John --

>>
I am not disputing what a technical writer does. In other words, somebody could be a medical writer without being a doctor. However, at some point, somebody with the necessary technical knowledge has to validate the piece...

Agree???
<<

Bottom line, not necessarily. If that were the strict conditions for publishing technical material, you'd rarely see original work, would you? Okay, maybe that's stretching it a bit, but there's another side to this you may not be aware of. I'm not sure you really understand how publishing works.

Technical editors edit. Technical reviewers review. The latter is the one making the validation call, while the former bitches at the writer about "active voice" and things like that. HTH!

Later... Karl