Re: technical Writing Skills

[Matt Harmon <mh1704 -at- ACS -dot- APPSTATE -dot- EDU>]

On 11 Feb 1995 23:00:50 -0000, Robert A. Goff (outlaw -at- rt66 -dot- com) wrote :

> Susan pointed out stuff that any beta tester might, and we seem to have
> consensus that a writer should also be a tester.  But Mean Green's
> description of the situation sounds as if he requested and got the changes
> to the product specificially to make it easier to produce the
> documentation, and I don't think that's our job at all.

   This was my understanding but reading through the responses I understand
what that particular writer was talking about.  (Which is the idea of the
writer acting as design/egonomics consultant.)

   I think that (unfortuately) a lot of the people I worked with in my Systems
Analysis and Design class (especially the instructor) took the attitude of
"Since you're an English major, you don't know what you're talking about," and
wouldn't have paid heed even if I had offered suggestions for making things
easier on the user.  Of course, these are also the same people who said that
we should make these complex systems as easy to use as possible.

   I guess I assumed that this is how the "real world" would be.  Good to know
that it isn't.
   Or is this way the world works and what chance does an English major with
a Computer Information Systems minor (who works tech support for his
university) stand in the future?

--
Matt Harmon at
mh1704 -at- xx -dot- acs -dot- appstate -dot- edu
(finger this account for North Carolina Weather Forecast)