TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Lois,
I've done this in training materials and tutorials, but never in user
documentation. If I remember from the Hackos seminar, which I attended
earlier this year, wasn't that the context for this particular
technique?
Lisa
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-53104 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-53104 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com] On Behalf Of Lois
Patterson
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 9:47 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: encouraging learning by experimentation?
This post is partly in response to Tom M., who wanted
another topic.
Another topic discussed at the Hackos seminar I
attended recently (which I mentioned on another
thread) was encouraging users to learn by
experimentation. Hackos indicated that user
documentation should indicate to the user how to
recover from errors. People learn when they make
errors.
In practical terms, has anyone tried to encourage experimentation by
users in user docs? How do you approach error recovery?
Obviously experimentation is not appropriate for
nuclear plant workers or some such thing.
Lois Patterson
_________________
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out SnagIt - The Screen Capture Standard!
Download a free 30-day trial from http://www.techsmith.com/rdr/txt/twr
Find out what all the other tech writers, including Dan, already know!
Order RoboHelp X3 in December and receive $100 mail in rebate, FREE WebHelp
Merge Module and the new RoboPDF - add powerful PDF output functionality
to RoboHelp X3. Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
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.
