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Subject:Re: Information Mapping (Long) From:Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET> Date:Thu, 29 Aug 1996 20:16:00 EST
At 04:03 PM 8/29/96 -0500, you wrote:
<loads of good arguments regrettably snipped, but leading to the conclusion...>
>I admire your list contributions greatly Tim. I've heard nothing but good
>thing Here however, we disagree. Info Mapping has a lot to offer an
>organization. Go to a seminar, and see what you think. Reading the book
>doesn't give you the working time to really understand what it's all about.
You're right Bill, we'll probably have to respectfully disagree. I continue
to have beefs with Info Mapping, one of the major ones being its claim to
being the end-all be-all and God's gift to the writer. It isn't. It is
organized, but so are the chemical reactions in fungus, and it doesn't mean
I have to respect it therefore. It isn't such a bad thing to turn dreadful
writers into passable ones, but that's pretty much where the utility ends
for me. After that it becomes more form than substance. Everything that IM
can do can also be done in other ways, something that IM vigorously tries to
argue around. A very, very good writer can beat IM silly by simply
exercising professional judgment. And I suppose that's my point; IM may be
helpful for bringing nonwriters into some sort of capability, but it's not
the kind of thing that will make better writers out of already good ones. It
works for references...sort of. It works for task lists...sort of. But for
my money I'd rather use it as a minority tool, preferring to use a wide
variety of approaches that may or may not resemble Horn's money tree.
Tim Altom
Vice President, Simply Written, Inc.
317.899.5882 (voice) 317.899.5987 (fax)
FrameMaker support ForeHelp support
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