Re: Biomed - Wave of the Future - Evolve?

["Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

John Posada wrote:
> Mike...that's fine...and yes, you would produce a document with average
> content, maybe even a document that someone would look at once in a while.

That description fits most successful technical documentation.

You are making way too many assumptions about what I might or might not
write. What makes you think (much less state publicly) that I would be
satisfied with delivering a mediocre document? An experienced writer knows
how to judge when his or her knowledge is inadequate to the task, and will
not deliver a document until it is acceptable.

When I really need to learn a new domain I immerse myrself in the websites,
journals, and trade publications of the assigned subject matter, then I am
much better prepared to extract info from SMEs, or to work without them (and
to know when they are BSing me). Why would you hire a writer who *doesn't*
do this?

> If I was hiring writers who wrote this way, why hire them when access to
the
> web is free, it doesn't only work between 8am and 8pm,

If you think about this question for more than thirty seconds I believe you
will be able to answer it yourself.

Because the readers don't know where to start, don't know which questions to
ask, and don't know how to filter and interpret the results of 300 Google
hits, or three different chemistry textbooks. That's raw data, not
documentation. The reader doesn't pursue additional resources to develop
this data into a mature document.  That's what a writer does.

Mike O.