Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School

Subject: Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School
From: "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 16:19:28 -0700


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com>

> The original poster did not say it was about "activism for users," so
> you did not miss anything.

Rule #10 does, I went back and reread it.

> It seems to me that the above is what people
> mean by being a "user advocate."
> At least that's how I have always understood
> the term. I think it's a useful
> concept -- far from "idiotic" -- as long as
> it's not seen as the primary role.
> It certainly plays a part in good writing.

Over the years I have encountered writers who saw
it as their job to document every last little thing about a
product, "just in case it might help the user," and continued
to vehemently argue that the user was being "shortchanged,"
even after a company's marketing planners specifically
decided that certain aspects of a product should not be
supported for business reasons. As I said, keeping the
user's needs in mind can be a good thing, but the writer
needs to remember who's signing the paycheck and what
the real targets are.

Gene Kim-Eng


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.744 / Virus Database: 496 - Release Date: 8/24/2004

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl

WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -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.



Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School Was Re: School vs experience...: From: Sue Ellen Colter
Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School Was Re: School vs experience...: From: Tony Markos
Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School Was Re: School vs experience...: From: Nora Merhar
Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School: From: Gene Kim-Eng
Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School: From: Bonnie Granat

Previous by Author: Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School
Next by Author: Re: Previous employer contacts
Previous by Thread: Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School
Next by Thread: Re: Important Stuff They Don't Teach In Tech Writing School


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads