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Subject:Re: In the Trenches, A Bit of Venting From:"Doug Duplessis" <unclebonsai -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 14 Nov 2002 16:22:45 -0800
Thanks to everyone who has replied, publically and privately. I deliberately
left out some information, since I wasn't sure the other writer was on the
list or not.
Basically, management is so swamped with other things that they're not
devoting a lot of time towards documentation. Red flag.
Other writer is against any single sourcing, instead wants to write four
times to provide training, online help, printed materials, and programming
reference. Red flag.
Other writer uses character and paragraph formatting for WORD instead of
styles. Red Flag.
Other writer produced this paragraph:
"When you click the mouse pointer on Open in the File Menu, you should see a
screen that says Open. Click the mouse pointer on the name of the file you
want to open, but if you don't see the file name, look for it on your disk.
When you find the file you want to work on you just click the OK button at
the bottom right of the screen you just opened. Voila! You can work on the
file."
Red flag.
I've lent him my copies of "Read Me First", Brogan's "Clear Technical
Writing", and some other references. I've given him the Word template that I
am using. It isn't anything complicated or special, but it has styles for
headings, procedural heads, numbered and bulleted lists, etc., and I don't
think it is hard to use.
I don't want to be antagonistic; I don't want to "tattle", so I'm going to
be as helpful as I can without compromising my deliverables. I'd thought
about talking to our manager, but I'm not very good at finessing things like
office politics. And I don't know how to bring my concerns up to the writer
himself without causing problems.
So, I am going to continue to write, and see how this shakes out.
Again, thanks to all of you who took the time to comment. I DO appreciate
your perspectives, even if I may disagree with some of them.
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