Re: Workmanship

[Melonie Holliman <LonieH -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

Howdy,

Apparently I was not clear and came across as saying something I was
not trying to. No one has a right to "trash" another's work. I did not mean
it to sound like you should try to get the tech writer fired. I still think I
have to let someone know when a document does not work for me.
If I have a connection to the writer directly, I'll let them know. And that
means intelligent constructive criticism, not just trashing. This is not
to call up and complain that their style was offensive or I did not like how
they laid it out; this is when the instructions do not take you where they
say you will go or the subject does not respond as the document said it would.

Again, we talk about wanting to be valued. If the company had handed
that project to some overworked-somebody-who-is-not-a-tech-writer and
said "anyone can write, so produce this manual for us", wouldn't you want
them to know their documentation does not work? That was the scenario I
was thinking of actually--a non-tech writer doing the writing as a secondary
project.

On the flip side, when I find great documentation I should respond as well.
Feedback is a great way to assess the effectiveness of a piece.

And, as I said, I ENCOURAGE my own users to respond (actually,
I beg them to) when they have a problem. Do you really not want
to know when your document does not do its job? And I don't care if
my bosses know. I tell them the same thing, "if you hear a complaint,
let me know so I can fix it." In fact, most feedback I get is through
tech support so the whole company knows when I screw up. It is just
part of producing a better document next time.

I apologize if I offended anyone or sounded holier than thou. That was
not my purpose.

Melonie Holliman
ABM Data Systems, Inc.
Austin, TX
mailto: LonieH -at- aol -dot- com




<< What unmitigated chutzpah! Who made you the arbiter of technical
 writing standards? Who assigned you your "duty" to contact companies
 and trash other writers' work? IMHO! In my humble opinion indeed!
  >>

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