TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Assumptions, the Audience and Arithmetic From:"John Fleming" <johnf -at- ecn -dot- ab -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 14 Aug 2001 22:43:27 -0600
Here's the scoop.
Earlier today, I was interviewing a subject matter expert about an
accounting procedure that requires a certain amount of arithmetic.
At one point in the procedure is a series of steps where the person
doing the procedure, to use the mathematical description, subtracts
one number from another. The number subtracted is often negative
(meaning, in layman's terms, change the sign and add).
When we hit this spot, my SME went into some pretty convoluted and
arcane descriptions of this process. Points about remembering when to
change the sign and add and so forth. Scary thing is, she had a
yellow sticky to remind her of some of these more arcane gyrations.
Now, the intended audience is generally clerical/accounting staff.
That is, while they are capable of doing a lot of accounting
functions, they are by no means professional accountants or people
with BCOM degrees.
This puts me in an awkward position about making a judgement call.
Can I safely assume that my audience can understand the procedure if
explained in the basic mathematical terms. That is, subtract A from
B, with the assumption that they would know that when the B is
negative, they need to change the sign and add? Or am I going to need
a somewhat more complex explanation?
Has anybody else here done writing for this kind of audience? What
was your experience?
--
John Fleming
Technical Writer
Edmonton, Alberta
email: johnf -at- ecn -dot- ab -dot- ca
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
