RE: What is our art?

["Rebecca Downey" <rdowney -at- matrox -dot- com>]

Rev Simon Rumble
> So what is it that we do?  What are the skills and how do you get them
> across to non-TRs?

Technical Writers add value to the product by reducing the number of
technical support calls any average user would otherwise be forced to make.

The "how" in "how do we do that" is our art.

I received the former from a very market-savvy VP during my first official
review, three months after I joined Matrox (the first job in which I had the
title "Technical Writer").

The later I gleaned from the reaction I get when a GUI, string or white
paper that originally had our test-users blinking wide-eyed in confusion
becomes something that makes them say "oh. ok - why didn't you say that in
the first place?"

I could wax poetic on the how, but that's already been done in this thread
by people far more eloquent than I.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Rebecca Downey Senior Technical Writer
ITG:NBM Matrox Electronic System
1055 St Regis, Dorval, Quebec, H9P 2T4


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