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Subject:Re: PDF a "book" of Word files From:"Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 5 Oct 2003 22:22:09 -0400
Scott Turner wrote:
> You can't wave a magic wand and have it done. They have to learn to
> use the tool.
(Speaking about employers in general, not about the employer from the
original post...)
No, they don't. Tech writing is "easy," remember? Some manager will just
assign it to whatever resource appears to be available, or to whoever gets
the short straw. Or to nobody at all. They can just limp along with
increasingly deteriorating documentation for six months until they hire
another tech writer to straighten it out. Maybe they will have to cycle
through one, two, or more tech writers before they find one who can really
take over, each turnover incurring another six-month delay.
And while each tech writer is trying to get a handle on this messed-up
situation, he or she will have to endure the slings and arrows of managers,
developers, and even other writers who assume "This new writer must not be
technical enough."
In my experience, most software shops can live without a tech writer for at
least six months, with no immediately apparent negative impact at all. This
makes it extremely attractive, even painless to get rid of tech writers.
Hey, in six months the manager who let the tech writer go might be gone
himself. But after six months, enough product changes may have taken place
that the old documentation is becoming less and less useful, even
embarrassing. Maybe a new releas is coming up in six weeks - time to hire a
writer to update the last year of product changes.
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