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RE: Re: Microsoft wants journalists, not tech writers?
Subject:RE: Re: Microsoft wants journalists, not tech writers? From:k k <turnleftatnowhere -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 29 Oct 2003 15:08:05 -0800 (PST)
--- Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote:
>
> I think technical writers deal more with facts than
> with
> "truth." A tech writer might document 350 bugs in
> the
> current release in exacting detail. A magazine
> journalist
> would write an article about how those 350 bugs mean
> the
> current release is garbage. I imagine that's what
> Mike
> was thinking.
>
It depends on the type of thing you're writing. If
you're doing a section of the release notes, of course
you do nothing but a dry-as-dust compendium of bug
data. If you're doing an overview for a
troubleshooting guide, you provide more info about the
significance of the bugs, cascase effects, etc. If
you're writing a book for the O'Reilly series, you
pull out the stops.
I'm pretty darn certain that product evaluation will
NOT be in the job description of any ex-journalist
hired by Microsoft. Can you imagine a Microsoft writer
saying "The product my company just turned out is so
full of bugs that it's garbage"?
Hey, maybe they're going to hire all the journalists
who've been saying their products are garbage so they
can legally make them shut up. :-)
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