RE: The cost of inaccurate technical documentation

[John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

> The crucial missing information was the numerical citation of a
> statute.
> Sounds pretty technical to me. And if the document had been written

What?

That's like saying that because Stephen King puts numbers on his
chapter, they're technical documents.

It's not technical...just sloppy.




> as
> required, it would not have "allowed for interpretation."
> 
> Depending on its content, legal documentation can be a subset of
> technical documentation -- just like chemical documentation,
> medical
> documentation, traffic control documentation...
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: John Posada 
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 2:08 PM
> > To: Dan Goldstein; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> > Subject: Re: The cost of inaccurate technical documentation
> > 
> > > So that's just two errors, at an estimated cost of $50 to $87.5
> > > million per error.
> > 
> > That's not technical documentation...it's legal documentation.
> > Lawyers don't employ technical writers to write that type of
> > documentation...they use paralegals and law clerks.
> > 
> > It's not the same thing. In fact, I'd say they couldn't be
> farther
> > apart. Tech documents take difficult concepts and describe them
> > simply. Legal documents intentionally allow for interpretation.
> > 
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John Posada
Senior Technical Writer

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