FWD: Appealing to or introducing Tech Comm "best practices"

[Anonymous Poster <anonfwd -at- raycomm -dot- com>]

Techwr-lers,

As a technical communicator in the software industry, I rely heavily on 
resources such as this listserv, STC and ACM SIGDOC publications, books by 
tech writing gurus (JoAnn Hackos, William Horton, Karen Schriver), etc. to 
make sure I'm on the right track and not missing out on better ways to 
create documentation.

But I keep running into technical communicators who, generally because
they "fell into" the field, have no knowledge of these resources and who seem
to prefer to make up their profession and their documents as they go. While 
these folks are plenty smart, mean well, and have expertise to share,
their documents often show a lack of exposure to the "standards" or "best 
practices" of the field. (Not that any two tech writers could ever 
completely agree on what the standards are, but there is at least some 
consensus on some issues.) Also, maybe because these tech writers invented 
their work without help from outside sources, they feel great ownership of 
their work and can be highly defensive toward suggestions for improvement.

Does anybody out there have thoughts or advice on how to build a good 
working relationship with such a colleague, while also encouraging them to 
open up to the standards and best practices of the field, as described and 
discussed in the major resources of the field (STC and ACM pubs, TECHWR-L, 
etc.)?

I don't want to be griping or to start a gripe session here. I do want to 
hear others' perspectives and suggestions. For me, this is a difficult, 
serious situation, and I welcome input.

Anonymous

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