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Subject:Re: STC Letter to the Editor From:Tom Murrell <trmurrell -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 3 Nov 2002 13:51:48 -0800 (PST)
> Andrew Plato wrote:
>
> > This is why STC competitions are utterly worthless. The judges are selecting
> > winners based on superficial aspects like design and layout. They are not
> judging
> > the technical or informational merit of the material because - they don't
> > understand the material. The ideal judge for tech docs should be sales or
> > customer praise.
>
> Bruce Byfield responded:
>
> As you can probably guess from my past posts,I wouldn't call design and
> layout superficial aspects. However, I agree that if an award is given
> on this basis, then its criteria ought to be clearly identified in the
> title of the award. The problem isn't that usable design isn't worthy of
> an award, but that it's not the only aspect to consider.
>
> Moreover, you do identify a real problem with tech-writing awards:
> unless the judges know the subject matter, how can they judge the
> usefulness of the information?
Gentlefolk,
Is Miss Universe judged by the quality of her content or the pleasantness of her
design? You sound like a bunch of feminists complaining that beauty pageants are
cattle calls.
Of course beauty pageants have no interest in intelligence, wisdom, or maturity. Of
course a competition the quality of technical documentation will focus on layout and
design over content, even, I suspect, useability of the documentation.
My question is why are these things even a surprise to thoughtful people? (Unless,
of course, someone is just trolling for a fight and proving that there are willing
takers for any provocative comments that are made. But we are professionals; so I'm
sure that's not the case.)
:-`)
=====
Tom Murrell mailto:tmurrell -at- columbus -dot- rr -dot- com http://home.columbus.rr.com/murrell/index.html Last Updated 10/28/02
--First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.
Thomas a Kempis (1380 - 1471), 1420--
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