Re: "Surviving the Dying Career of Technical Writing"

[Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>]

The Aladdin book I linked to is 334 pages.

https://archive.org/details/aladdinmanualofc00betc

There was presumably a lot of reuse in those manuals.

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 11:20 AM, Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote:
> Some sample pages from a Sears Modern Home instruction manual can be viewed
> here:
>
> http://www.cabincreekcds.com/SearsHBInstructions.htm
>
> If a single person wrote this, indexed it, did all the illustrations and
> shot all the photos single-handed and still had time to actually design the
> house, it would be very impressive indeed.
>
> The Aladdin manual, on the other hand, is a much simpler work:
>
> http://www.forgottenbooks.com/books/Aladdin_Manual_of_Construction_Practical_Methods_Covering_Every_Step_1000839976
>
> (they'll make you sign up for a free account to view it)
>
> I can definitely see a chief architect, who is less involved with the
> hands-on work of design than the staff architects, turning this out.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
>
> On 3/24/2016 10:51 AM, Robert Lauriston wrote:
>>
>> The technical writing was done by the architects. Of course they must
>> have had a typical lead-type-era team of editors and so on to produce
>> the printed manuals.
>>
>> David S. Betcone, who was later the chief architect for Sears's
>> architectural division, is credited as the sole author and illustrator
>> of the Aladdin Manual of Construction. Aladdin was Sears's biggest
>> competitor in the kit home market.
>
>
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