Re: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting

["Michael West" <mike -dot- west -at- oz -dot- quest -dot- com>]

Lisa Wright wrote:


> Thesis
> Arg 1
> Supporting Detail 1
> Supporting Detail 2
> Arg 2
> Supporting Detail 1
> Supporting Detail 2
> Arg 3
> Supporting Detail 1
> Supporting Detail 2
> Conclusion
>
> A very specific structure that students struggle with endlessly. It's
> very logical, very simple, and it does very little to help them produce
> coherent content. Just giving people blanks in which to plug content
> does nothing to help them produce good content.


I like this analogy. I used to think that I could write bullet-proof
templates to extract the required bits of information in the right
pigeon-holes, but after many attempts I have had to admit that
while a few people will follow directions and produce usable
content, the rest of them will still find a way to cram everything
including the kitchen sink into a single mislabelled, mispunctuated,
stream-of-consciousness, rambling pseudoparagraph.

--
Michael West
Melbourne, Australia






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