Due care (was RE: Benchmarking Technical Documentation)

Subject: Due care (was RE: Benchmarking Technical Documentation)
From: KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 14:25:37 -0400

Richard Smith [mailto:Richard -dot- Smith -at- windriver -dot- com] sez:

>I've heard people say that things like typos, bad grammar,
>incorrect usage,
>etc. all will cloud the credibility of a doc. That's a load of
>you-know-what
>IMO. If I need to know the jumper settings to get board X to
>work, do I care
>if it sounds like it's written by a third grader? No.

Actually, if the text reads as though it was written
by someone writing in a third language -- but is
otherwise decipherable -- that bothers me LESS than
if it appears to have been written by the third
grader, or if it is full of typos and general sloppiness.

That is, my natural assumption, until PROVEN otherwise,
is that the care and precision with which the
document was written is an accurate predictor of
the care and precision applied to the information.

What if that jumper setting would hurt your
hardware, or require you to go back and re-install
a lot of software and drivers, if it's incorrect the
first time out?

How confident are you going to be that the slob
writer suddenly decided to step out of character
and check/verify the info, just for you?

/kevin

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