Re: What Are Writing Skills?

Subject: Re: What Are Writing Skills?
From: Martha J Davidson <editrix -at- nemasys -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 17:32:39 -0800


At 02:49 PM 2/21/2005, Tony "DFD" Markos wrote:

I say that if someone really knows the product inside
and out (and of course has some grammar skills),
he/she can write user friendly documentation.

I disagree with this. It's one thing to analyze a system,
whether by identifying the flow of data or using some
other technique that produces clear understanding of
the system and what it does, and yet another to derive
from that a logical flow for presenting the information
to people who must use the system.

As several people have said, the ability to write good
documentation requires an understanding of how to
structure the information that you must present. And
an awareness of how you are informing the users: in
a sequential fashion based on an example, as you might
for a tutorial, or as a list of all the tasks related to a
particular module of a large system, as you might for
a user guide, or as detailed descriptions of individual
components of a system, as you might for context-
sensitive help topics.

Good documentation requires both a good understanding
of the technology you are documenting (as it appears
in the specific application) and an awareness of how
users can best absorb the information and learn to use
the product. Not to mention at least a rudimentary ability
to structure sentences and paragraphs that are clean and
straightforward. It's become clear to me over the years
how specialized a skill that actually is, though being able
to do it is not limited to tech writers.

martha
--
Martha Jane {Kolman | Davidson}
Dances With Words
editrix -at- nemasys -dot- com

"Too many words bring about exhaustion."
--Tao Te Ching, Chapter 5 (translated by Sheets/Tovey)



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Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: What Are Writing Skills?: From: John Posada
Re: What Are Writing Skills?: From: Tony Markos

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