Re: What would you like your boss to know?

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- STARBASECORP -dot- COM>]

Mel McNichols writes...
[snip]>
> Since I'm not particularly enthusiastic about the things
> academics have to say about tech/business writing needs, I'm
> slanting the report from my experience in industry.  What I
> would like to hear from my colleagues who work for a living is
> this: What would you like your bosses and colleagues
> (non-writerly) to know about the writing end of things?  What
> sort of stuff should they know about what you do?

I think I'd like other people to realize that techwriting is
not anything like speaking English -- that is, just because
you can answer the telephone doesn't mean you can write a
user manual.

Lots of preparation goes into creating a technical manual.
We use organizational skills to present the information in
a way that it's easy to find things. We consider various
different learning styles and attempt to accomodate all
sorts of learners (visual learners, doers, etc.) and
create overviews, in-depth information, and the like
accordingly.

We consider instructional design principles and discuss
theories like whether to go minimalist or modular.

We consider typography, design, information chunking...

Most non-writers can't even conceive of the things we
consider before we even start to put words on paper!
And we work *very* hard at learning these things!

I've been a tech writer/instructional designer in the
software industry for 12 years, and, yes you can quote me!

Sue Gallagher
StarBase Corp, Irvine CA
sgallagher -at- starbasecorp -dot- com