Re: This too is technical communication

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

I'd bet that the quality of the result was no fluke, but is proof that 
they understood the process that yields quality results.  I'd guess that 
the engineering work was very orderly, and the documentation proceeded 
alongside of it.  I agree with you that they probably did not work in 
the short cycle environment that some of us work in today. 


Caroline Tabach wrote:
> With all due respect,
> I bet they did not have a deadline (or at lest not the type of
> deadline we seem to work to)
> and they were probably only documenting one "application" at a time.
> Times have changed
>
> On 6/5/07, Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> wrote:
>> >
>> .
>>
>> I have some typewriter repair manuals that are gems of technical
>> writing--the tech writer and illustrator created lucid overviews,
>> problem descriptions, and procedures. They obviously worked very closely
>> with the engineers, and the engineers obviously knew how to approach the
>> typewriter as a comprehensible bunch of systems. The editors knew the
>> subject and checked the content carefully. The book designers did an
>> exceptional job in laying out the pages, and the publishers put it all
>> in a hole-punched lay-flat binding on paper that withstands years of
>> usage in the shop.
>>
>> .......... The manuals were a
>> big selling point in the marketing of these typewriters by a company
>> that was known as a salesman's company--I'm describing the manuals for
>> the IBM Selectric.
>>
>>
>

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