Re: This too is technical communication

["Mike Starr" <mikestarr-techwr-l -at- writestarr -dot- com>]

Ah, it appears that I didn't specify that being a "professional clueless 
idiot" is my strategy for acquiring the in-depth knowledge and insight I 
need to create the documentation, not who I perceive to be my target 
audience.

One of my mentors, lo these many years ago, advised me to write for an 
audience of "generally educated non-specialists" and I've kept that in mind 
ever since. I hadn't encountered Cooper's advice that you quoted but that 
coincides nicely with the advice of my mentor.

However, I do make it a point to try to make sure that if a customer has a 
question, there'll be some part of the documentation to answer it. Of 
course, one can't possibly anticipate every question and answer it but I try 
to provide answers to the vast majority of them.

Mike
--
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Stuart Burnfield" <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: This too is technical communication

> Mike Starr said:
> > I've often opined that one of my principal duties as a
> > technical writer is to be a "professional clueless idiot".
>
> I think this is a dangerous and unnecessary strategy.
>
> If you're pretending to be a clueless idiot, it's hard to avoid
> overwriting and overexplaining. You'll be tailoring the docs to make
> them more usable by a handful of users, at the expense of the
> overwhelming majority of users. (I'm assuming you haven't identified
> clueless idiots as a significant segment of your target audience :^)
>
> As a computer user, when I need to look up the documentation I don't
> think to myself that it's because I'm a clueless idiot. I think it's
> because there's some information I need that I don't have, or because I
> need a refresher on something I used to know. For example:
> - I did a few manuals in Word 2000 but now I need to set up a template
> in Word 2007 for the first time
> - I'm a very experienced user of Frame but I've never needed to produce
> Help output or create equations till now
> - I know I can wrap text around the outline of a graphic but I don't
> remember what it's called or how to do it
>
> I don't think any of these situations makes me a clueless idiot. If
> there's the faintest patronising whiff in the writing that the author
> thinks I am a clueless idiot (such as elaborate, baby-talk detail) I'd
> be a pretty unhappy customer.
>
> As Alan Cooper said, imagine the user as intelligent but very busy.
>
> Stuart 

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