Re: New poll question? (Was Re: Pinsky poem in the Atlantic "Jar of Pens")
As a technical writer, do people (coworkers, customers,
internal users, anyone) look to you as an expert on the
product you document? To what extent, and in what circumstances?
Yes, quite a few folks see me that way. As a lone writer, I'm
the only one with the broad high-level view of the entire
software suite who also knows about the nitty-gritty details.
Everyone else either has a pretty good idea what our products
are for and what they do, or an in-depth understanding of
the implementation details of one or more modules.
In your current job as a technical writer, what are you
considered (by others) to be a Subject Matter Expert of?
Let's see:
* How to find my way around the UI of each of our products,
including the ones that are barely past the prototype phase.
* What's in the XML format of the mapping files the tools
create and whether the UI has captured all of the things
you can specify and if the terminology is consistent between
the XML tags and the field labels.
* Where to find the data files for all of the sample applications
and whether those data files are up to date with the latest
file-format changes.
* How to construct a clear English sentence and structure
a document (after offering numerous times, folks are coming
to me asking me to edit marketing collateral and training
slides).
* What's the latest "official" term for feature X or UI construct Y.
And how did we agree to spell term Z?
And probably a bunch more stuff, mostly centered around
my knowledge of the product at this point.
martha
--
Martha Jane {Kolman | Davidson}
Dances With Words
mailto:editrix -at- nemasys -dot- com
"We must become the change we want to see in the world."
--Gandhi
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References:
New poll question? (Was Re: Pinsky poem in the Atlantic "Jar of Pens"): From: Dick Margulis
Re: New poll question? (Was Re: Pinsky poem in the Atlantic "Jar of Pens"): From: Deborah S. Ray
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