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.
Subject:Re: Exercise to get participants involved From:slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 29 Sep 2005 09:07:48 -0600
Please, not the peanut butter sandwich exercise!
The original poster has a room full of engineers waiting to learn about
real technical writing from a real technical writer. In the first ten
minutes, the class is at their most alert, positive and receptive. Here
comes the first exercise that the instructor has chosen to demonstrate
important things about technical communication.
We're writing instructions to make a sandwich.
No-one in history has ever made a sandwich by following a list of
instructions, but never mind.
The people 'writing' the instructions already knew how to make the
sandwich. They don't need to learn anything or ask questions first.
The people who will follow the instructions already know make the
sandwich. Not sure why they're following a procedure to learn how to do
something they already know how to do.
Now they're pretending they don't know how to make a sandwich. In fact,
they're pretending to be obtuse and deliberately trying to sabotage the
process.
Now the technical writer has to make the instructions so agonisingly
literal, so mind-numbingly precise that the stubborn, malicious, dense
'users' can't find a way to misinterpret the plainest instruction, no
matter how hard they try.
So with less than two hours of the workshop to go, this is what we've
conveyed to the engineers about technical communication: it's when an
expert writes excruciating detailed but superfluous instructions for
someone who doesn't need them (but who may be stupid or malicious).
There are so many important messages we'd want to convey in a short
session. Why choose a warm-up exercise that gives contrary messages that
we then have to overcome?
So please, not the peanut butter sandwich exercise!
Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help 2005 converts RoboHelp files with one click. Author with Word or any HTML editor. Visit our site to see a conversion demo movie and learn more. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
