Re: Contests for Technical Documentation?
> The documentation team at Leitch Technology is thinking about entering some
> of their documentation in a contest.
>
Why would they want to? I'm not asking to be snide; I'm genuinely
curious.
If you've a professional writer, you probably (or should) keep track
of the current standards. Therefore, you should be a reasonable
judge of the quality of your work. You'll also know from other
clues: the calls to technical support, the way the geeks treat you,
and what money you get are some of the more obvious ones.
Many people, particularly lone writers, find that getting detailed, constructive feedback from experienced writers is very valuable. It's something they don't get any other way except by entering competitions. Also, if you win an award, it can help bolster the reputation of techwriting among your company. (I also know one writer who entered a competition hoping she'd get a lot of negative feedback so she could go to her managers and say, "See? I told you this wasn't working.")
At any rate, I seriously doubt that a contest will tell you much.
Writing contests of any sort - whether it's poetry or manuals - are
influenced by prevailing fashions, and, all too often, by cronyism,
with the judges' company or the judge's friends winning far more
often than you'd predict by probability.
I don't know how other places do it, but our STC chapter trades entries with those of another chapter. That way, we're judging entries from people we don't know and have never met. (By the way, having been a judge for STC competitions, I recommend getting involved with judging as well as entering. It is fascinating to get three techwriters together all analyzing the same piece of work.)
Regards,
Philip Sharman.
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