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Subject:Re: Techwriter Aptitude Test (A Daydream) From:John Cornellier <john -dot- cornellier -at- PARIS -dot- CARDS -dot- DELARUE -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 7 Nov 1997 16:01:11 GMT
No Mike, the technical writer is the one who takes out the instruction leaflet
and says, indignantly, "I can't believe they're using Gill Sans 11 point! It's
_so_ '70s! Uurghh, gag, read this: <...Alot of customer's ask how we implement
our colour-center technology(TM) to proactively aide they're traveling
needs...>. This is nothing more than a tech spec tarted-up by some inept bozos
in marketing! It's not even procedure-oriented! No wait: Here's a procedure. But
they've bulleted it instead of numbering it! What's this? Set time to GMT? Is
this culturally-sensitive? Better check it out with techwr-l pronto!"
What? Time's up? Did I get the job? What? Sure it's 70 bucks an hour: I'm a
certified information architect!
mailto:john -dot- cornellier -at- paris -dot- cards -dot- delarue -dot- com
____________________________ Séparateur Réponse ________________________________
Objet : Techwriter Aptitude Test (A Daydream)
Auteur : <midannen -at- si -dot- bosch -dot- de> à DLRCS-Internet
Date : 07/11/97 13:57
This is just some kind of wild idea I had while walking home from lunch
today, it's loosely connected to the recent thread on what makes a
technical writer.
Here's the scenario:
You're looking for a technical writer. You've invited ten people for an
interview. You sit them down in a room and hand each of them a
shrinkwrapped box with a little digital alarm clock or some such
appliance. Everybody tears open the package. Nine people take out the
clock, start randomly poking at buttons look for the battery
compartment, after a while they get the thing to display the time, a few
people get it to display the correct time.
One guy first takes out the instruction leaflet and reads it. After a while he's
able to set the time correctly, adjust for time zones, set the alarm and switch
between 12 and 24 hour display. Congratulations. You've found your technical
writer.
