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RE: The Origins of Techwriting (WAS:Re: Techwr-1 polls)

Subject: RE: The Origins of Techwriting (WAS:Re: Techwr-1 polls)
From: Sandra Charker <scharker -at- connectives -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 03:16:15 +1100

Meg Halter, of navair.navy.mil, asked about the British and US WWII maintenance manuals:

Hi Sandra --

I'm curious. Would you list some of the fascinating contrasts you found?

-- Meg

The documents are still packed away from reorganising our house for an influx of Olympics visitors, so I'm relying on memory for this reply.

The overall impression is that the US manual was written as if it might have to be used by someone without any other reference, where a user of the British manual was expected to send the thing back for repair. I'm not saying that was either the intention of the writers or how the manuals were actually used, but that's the impression. It comes from two characteristics.

1. Most obvious is that the US manual has much higher production values. Part of that is the paper, and I'm pretty sure that the British versions would have been affected by wartime paper shortages. The US one has more and better illustrations - I think it has photos with callouts as well as diagrams. Again, that could be the effect of wartime constraints on resources, but it might also be a difference in how the respective forces thought information should be provided. That's one of the questions I'd love someone to ask.


2. The US manual is written as "do this". The British one describes what must be done. I hesitate to say that the US version is active and the British is passive without actually looking at them again, but that might also be true.

Sorry I can't be more specific. When (not if. please not if) the house gets unpacked I'll be happy to provide more information, including details of the machines and document numbers for the manuals.

Sandra Charker

mailto:scharker -at- connectives -dot- com
http://www.connectives.com/

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