Re: This too is technical communication

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

John, you're missing the point here... I want the SMEs to explain things to 
me like it was *ME* who's the high-school dropout forklift driver. I do 
write for the appropriate audience, not for forklift drivers, if the 
appropriate audience is network administrators.

Even though I'm capable of understanding things at a much higher level, I 
want the SMEs to drop their assumptions about what I know and give me the 
highly simplified version of what they know so that I can then take what 
they know and adapt it to the needs of the audience I'm writing for. I need 
to know more about things than I'm going to put in the documentation. For 
example, I may need to know why the decisions were made to structure 
database tables in a certain way in order to understand how the product 
manipulates those tables. I won't be putting the information about those 
decisions in the documentation but having that background knowledge helps me 
understand it well enough to explain the software's use of the tables where 
necessary.

In addition, I certainly don't give all of those analogies to every SME I 
talk to... I just trot one or more of them out when I'm having trouble 
understanding something myself because the SME makes assumptions about what 
I need to know.

Mike
--
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
Technical Writer   -   Online Help Developer   -    Website developer
Graphic Designer    -    Desktop Publisher   -       MS Office Expert
Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax:(262) 697-6334
Email: mike -at- writestarr -dot- com      -      Web: http://www.writestarr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Posada" <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "Mike Starr" <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>; <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 4:39 PM
Subject: Re: This too is technical communication

>> software product. It's a whole lot easier for me to tell an
>> engineer to explain something to me the same way they'd
>> explain it to a high-school dropout forklift driver (I sometimes
>> say to explain things to me like they'd...
>
> Mike...it seems you spend a whole lot of time explaining to the SME
> what they shouldn't have a problem with your "clueless idiot"
> position.
>
> Wouldn't it be better to know the subject already at as high a level
> as possible, then ask the SME to give you the advanced level of
> knowledge?
>
> If I used that forkliftdriver analogy, their first response would be
> "Our users aren't forklift drivers...maybe you should write for our
> users, who are network administrators."
>
> John Posada
> Senior Technical Writer 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.