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Subject:Re: Judging manuals (by themselves) From:Susan Fowler <sfowler -at- EJV -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 3 Feb 1994 14:15:57 EST
The idea of judging books by subject matter is the best idea I've heard in a
long time.
As well as being more fair to the writers, it may solve another serious
problem--that of judges criticizing only layout, style, and graphics because
they can't judge or criticize anything else. This is a waste of time for the
writers and the judges, especially when the layout or style is a specification
within that particular industry. For example, criticizing an IBM manual's page
design isn't going to get anyone anywhere. However, recognizing how well an IBM
writer worked within the constraints of the style to describe, say,
telecommunications software is worthwhile.
