Once vs. when, and low pay

["Ben Kovitz" <bkovitz -at- nethere -dot- com>]

At the risk of giving offense, I'd like to suggest that there may
be some connection between the "once vs. when" thread (and similar
threads) and the thread about low pay and difficulty finding a job
in the current market.

We love language and all its minutiae or we wouldn't be
professional writers.  And of course our judgements about
precisely which word to use and when are the result of the most
highly refined perceptions of our languages.  So I'm not
disagreeing with anyone's choice of which word to use with which
audience.  What I'd like to suggest is to consider the priority of
such topics in relation to other aspects of technical writing.


Imagine yourself in the position of an employer.  You've got a
thousand things to worry about--a thousand uncertainties about
which sales will close and how much money will come in and when.
And you've got only one certainty: you've got to meet payroll.

A technical writer comes into your office, accustomed to the wages
he or she got during the dotcom revolution.  The benefit this
writer offers your organization is the ability to settle matters
of English usage like whether "once" or "when" is right, how many
spaces to put after a period, whether to say that a window
"displays" or "opens" or "appears", and the like.

Another technical writer claims to make short manuals that contain
just the information readers need, in ways suited to the sorts of
troubles that lead them to look in the manual.  This writer gives
examples of how to omit information or organize it on a page so
that finding it takes only a second or two.

Which technical writer's priorities seem more aligned with your
priority of meeting payroll?  Which will have the greater impact
on sales and happy (repeat) customers?


Ben



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out RoboDemo for tutorials! It makes creating full-motion software
demonstrations and other onscreen support materials easy and intuitive.
Need RoboHelp? Save $100 on RoboHelp Office in May with our mail-in rebate.
Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

  Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
  5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
  Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.