This too is technical communication: on the other hand...

[Gordon McLean]

Ditto. I created a company website in 1996, mainly because there was
'no-one' else to do it.

And as for the "web designers" now create the content... Again, like our own
little corner of the world, there are many MANY good web designers who
understand the difference, and the need to maintain that difference, between
layout and content. A lot of the skills we, as Tech Writers, have that are
centred around information structure, are largely duplicated in the web
design world (although the terminology is different, the premises
(premisii*) are the same).

As for the role of Tech Writers in "QA", I've never worked with a test team
that didn't welcome our input. As both teams are, typically, learning new
functionality at around about the same time, the crossover of knowledge and
skills is hugely helpful. Of course I wouldn't claim to be a QA Engineer
even though I do 'test' the application, and they wouldn't claim to be Tech
Writers even though they do sometimes provide source content for the docs.

~~~~~~~

A sidenote for Friday: Should the list add an auto-generated footer that
states the following:
1. One part of the answer to most questions is "Know your audience".
2. We can't all outline the delicate and subtle intricacies of our
workplace, let's presume we are ALL generalising.

Anything else? ;-)

Gordon

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gordon.mclean=grahamtechnology.com at lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gordon.mclean=grahamtechnology.com at lists.techwr-l.c
om] On Behalf Of Sankara R
Sent: 31 May 2007 18:54
To: Gene Kim-Eng; techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Re: This too is technical communication: on the other hand...


> *asked* Tech Pubs to help them out with it. 

At my first tech wr job, I was asked to edit web content. Circa 1995.

I did that with much alacrity. And talking of usability, I have an
interesting story:

 No phone numbers were provided for contacting a tourism office, on the web
site. (Back then, perhaps, it was a Web site). When I commented on that,
informally, having marked the copy - the girl who worked on the copy said
sweetly:

"It is a conscious choice not to mention the phone numbers; because, nobody
picks up those phones and it can be frustrating to have a number and the
other end does not respond"

Could not agree more. 

That which cannot be talked over
 Must be passed over in silence...

Said Wittgenstein, almost.

==
when in doubt, tell the truth
 - sam clemens


 
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