Re: STC Letter to the Editor

Subject: Re: STC Letter to the Editor
From: Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 11:34:36 -0800 (PST)



--- Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de> wrote:
> > 2. The community gathers and spends most of their time discussing
> > everything -
> > except content. Huh?
>
> What's so hard do understand? When a number a people gather, they tend
> to talk about topics they have in common. "Content" is a very abstract
> concept that could be discussed but isn't all that interesting.
> Specific content, on the other hand, may be much too varied to discuss
> fruitfully at an STC meeting.

So call it the Society of Layout and Formatting. If you're not talking about
content and content issues - then don't call it a communication society.

> You could talk about network protocols, sure. But that would send those
> 90% of the techwriters packing who don?t do anything with networking
> protocols and presumably never will. And for a third of the remainder,
> the level is too high, and for another third it is too low.

That's sad. Because if those writers actually listened, they might learn
something valuable. And then they might realize that knowledge - even about a
seemingly unconnected issue - is valuable.

> Same with other content topics. So the STC choses to focus on those
> topics that actually benefit the majority of its members. This appears
> to be a very well-founded approach, especially given that there are a
> large number of separate societies such as the IEEE where all kinds of
> content can be discussed.

Like I said - call it the Society of Documentation or Society of Technical
Presentation. Since content isn't dicussed, then its not a society of
communication.

Andrew Plato

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All-new RoboHelp X3 is now shipping! Get single sourcing, print-quality
documentation, conditional text and much more, in the most monumental
release ever. Save $100! Order online at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

Check out SnagIt - The Screen Capture Standard!
Download a free 30-day trial from http://www.techsmith.com/rdr/txt/twr
Find out what all the other tech writers, including Dan, already know!

---
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.


Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: STC Letter to the Editor: From: Jan Henning

Previous by Author: Re: STC Letter to the Editor
Next by Author: STC and words
Previous by Thread: Re: STC Letter to the Editor
Next by Thread: Re: STC Letter to the Editor


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads