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.
> Is it better to include substantial content that's mostly right and mostly
> useful but unreviewed, or is it better to include substantially
> less content
> that is known to be 100% right?
John,
Every piece of information has an associated degree of provenance, either
stated or implied. As readers we attach a greater or lesser degree of trust
to a piece of information based on a wide variety of context clues such as
the author's reputation, the publisher, the medium, the physical quality,
etc.
I think that the key thing is not that everything that you print has to be
verified 100%. If that were true, newspapers would be unable to function,
for instance. I think that what you have to do is make sure that the reader
does not attach a higher degree of provenance to the information than it
deserves.
We do this with internal pre-release sections of our documentation by using
a yellow background and a warning message on sections that have not yet been
verified. (One of the advantages of a modular system is that we can do this
at a very granular level.)
I think as long as you do not mislead the reader, either implicitly or
explicitly, as to the provenance of your information, you should be fine.
---
Mark Baker
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com
This message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the
intended recipient and may contain confidential and privileged
information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, copying, or
distribution is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended
recipient please contact the sender by reply email and destroy
all copies of the original message and any attachments.
NEED TO PUBLISH FRAMEMAKER CONTENT ONLINE? "Mustang" is a NEW single
sourcing tool for FrameMaker that lets you easily publish your content
online. No macro language required! http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l3
Mercer University's online MS Program in Technical Communication Management:
Preparing leaders of tomorrow's technical communication organizations today.
See www.mercer.edu/mstco or write George Hayhoe at hayhoe_g -at- mercer -dot- edu -dot-
---
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.
