Re: You're not the only person who can write

Subject: Re: You're not the only person who can write
From: lyndsey -dot- amott -at- docsymmetry -dot- com
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:12:58 -0500

Steven Brown writes:

In the three months that I've been back, no one has
complimented me on my fine grammar, on my font
selection, or my proper indentation of second-level
bulleted lists. What they do notice are mistakes and
incomplete information. I've urged them not to focus
on the content, but it seems that's what's important
to them. Damn them

When I get a contract in which there is already a set of (bad) documentation (whether written by an engineer or a writer), the first thing I do is to redesign the doc. I once handed a re-designed installation guide to the VP of one company, who looked at it and said, "Wow!" I had not at this point changed the content at all. This has been my experience at several companies--peeople who do not have to actually read the documentation will be very impressed if it looks easy to read. These people--those who look at the doc, but don't read it--include the buyers of the companies who are thinking of buying your company's product.
On the other hand, SMEs, reviewers, etc., read the content. Irritatingly, they tend to focus on minor details when you want them to focus on technical accuracy. As a result of this phenomonem, I attach a note to docs that are being reviewed; "Please do not correct grammar, punctuation, etc., I will fix these myself; instead, focus only on the technical accuracy of the content." This works sometimes.
Getting back to the general theme of this thread, I once decided to estimate the amount of time that techwriters spend on each of the tasks of their job. I worked out that we spend only about ten percent of our time actually writing. The rest of the time is spent on research, on figuring out how the system works, interviewing SMEs, planning how we will present the information, GUI makeovers, usability, doing administrative tasks, etc. Really, as only 10 percent of the job, writing is no big deal. We don't even have to be very good at it, and lots of us aren't. We do, however, have to be pretty good at most of the other things.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyndsey Amott
www.docsymmetry.com
Winnipeg, MB R3G 2J3




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Re: You're not the only person who can write: From: Steven Brown

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