Re: No Subject

[Mary Joan Deutschbein <Mjmoongold -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

Time to delurk:

I'm intrigued with this conversation about what we, as technical writers, are
supposed to be providing to our customers. I write a lot of different kinds
of documentation, as well as training programs and marketing packages. I try
to make my documents, presentations, job aids, etc. the kind of  tools I
would have used when I was an enduser in an office environment. I've been
told by many of my clients that most of the time the enduser puts my stuff on
a shelf and rarely, if ever, looks at it unless they are completely stumped.

So what I try to do is provide a context within which the product is helpful
to them and give them simple instructions on how to use the features
available. I keep things very simple. In the moments when I begin to think I
am enriching the life of the enduser by enlightening them and expanding their
mind via my incredibly important treatise on this stunning, life changing
product, SOMEONE (client, enduser, husband, child, this list) reminds me that
what I'm writing is just words. More words in a world where no one has time
to read all of the words they are supposed to read. It will end up in a pile
of other words that are supposed to get read someday.

Hopefully, when they have to look at my words, what my clients will find is
that I have communicated to them what the program, machine, sales tools,
whatever, is supposed to do and how to use it. No more, no less. And, it pays
the bills, too.

Mary Joan Deutschbein
Monn Gold Press and Workshops

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