"taboo engineering techniques" (RE: Modularization of Documentation)

[Kevin Cole]

Tony,

In discussing the analysis of technical content you said: "Unfortunately,
you are going to find very little written material in the TW community on
how to properly modularize your work.  It involves use of taboo engineering
techniques."

Do you mean to say that engineering techniques are taboo within the "TW"
community?  The IEEE does have a society for technical writers, you know.
This attitude doesn't do much for the credibility of the "TW Community" at
large.

A tech writer's involvement in a software engineering project can be as
superficial or as technically challenging as your skills demand.  You can be
essentially a highly-priced amanuensis, taking programmers' notes and typing
them into highly-detailed MS Word template files.  Or you could participate
in the analytic process, model the documentation as the system itself is
modeled,  involve yourself in system testing as well as end-user QA, and in
general bring tremendous value-adding skills to the project that extend from
and expand upon your unique perspective and background.

Tech writers who pride themselves on staying clean of all those icky
engineering details don't add much value.  They tend to cheapen the
perceptions of our public.  

I'm hoping that's not the attitude you were espousing!

--KC

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.o.|     Kevin Cole
..o|     Cincinnati, Ohio
ooo|     USA
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