Re: Single sourcing survey

Subject: Re: Single sourcing survey
From: "T. Word Smith" <techwordsmith -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 06:32:24 -0700 (PDT)


Hi,

--- "Mackin, Timothy H" <thm979s -at- smsu -dot- edu> wrote:
> there are just a few more things I'd like to know.
> The following is a short survey about single
> sourcing.
>
> please rank all questions between 1 (strongly
> disagree) and 5 (strongly agree).
>
> 1. Single sourcing is important to the technical
> communication field.

(4) The concepts of writing in a consistently reliable
and repeatable way are more important, and single
sourcing is just a subset of that.

> 2. Single sourcing technologies are appropriately
> covered at most colleges and universities.

(3) Actually, I have no clue. If the colleges and
universities teach consistently reliable and
repeatable writing techniques, SGML, XML, and database
theory and application to their technical writing
students, then I'd say (5).

> 3. Single sourcing is causing technical
> communicators to lose jobs.

(1) In truth, single sourcing should. But, in reality,
PHBs don't get it and are often more interested in
seeing tech writing monkeys banging keys than
recognizing that the tech writing process is many
times more mature than the development/engineering
process. So, no, I really don't think single sourcing
does cost jobs.

> 4. More work should be done to incorporate single
> sourcing into technical communication.

(2) Not really. More work should be done to
incorporate consistently reliable and repeatable
writing techniques and to make the technical writing
community more well rounded with regards to their
profession, typography, press, and technology,
JavaScript, the Web, lite programming, SQL, and with
regards to the subject matter being doc'd.

> 5. Single sourcing is used without difficulty in
> your business.

(1) No; in fact, we are going away from it. Typing as
measure in hours at the office is more important than
getting done on-time, under budget, and with improved
accuracy. It's a corporate culture thing that's
unlikely to change.

> 6. Please answer this question with a yes or a no:
> Does your company use single sourcing?
>

Yes. But, as mentioned, we are moving away from it.

>
> Thank you to all who participate. I will gladly
> make the results known upon request.


=====
T.

"Money makes the world go 'round is an incomplete statement; money is the fuel, and stupidity is the short bus that burns it." (Bill Swallow-02/04)




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References:
Single sourcing survey: From: Mackin, Timothy H

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