Re: "Are technical writers the unsung heroes of document generation?"

Subject: Re: "Are technical writers the unsung heroes of document generation?"
From: "William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L Writing" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 21:08:21 -0400

Back on track, yes, they are the unsung heroes, but not in the way most think.

They are insurance.

When the proverbial brown stuff hits the proverbial rotating air mover, what is in those manuals can make or break a company in court. Look up American Airlines Flight 191. American Airlines used an engine removal procedure different than that documented by McDonnell Douglas, and as such, AA took the blame. Had that not existed, McDD would have had the blame. The overall design was not a very good one, so that added to the disaster, but deviating from the acceptable procedure is what caused the accident.

This is where some companies get in trouble. Instead of allowing tech writers to run all the procedures start to finish to ensure the documentation actually matches, short cuts are often taken by having others review it and (maybe) sign off on it. However, those most familiar with a task will frequently skip tasks and not follow word for word a procedure, defeating the review process.



----- Original Message ----- From: "Janoff, Steven" <Steven -dot- Janoff -at- hologic -dot- com>
To: "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>; "Robert Lauriston" <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>; "TECHWR-L Writing" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2015 7:55 PM
Subject: RE: "Are technical writers the unsung heroes of document generation?"


I'll need to let this one go. It's gone far afield of the situation I was discussing.

Certainly an interesting thread, with some good learning. I'm grateful for that.

Thanks,

Steve


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