No subject

insomniac (whose thought "bubble" is an exploded view of an entire
Beetle engine) to sketches of an arm reaching out from under the car
searching for a just-out-of-reach tool, that was me-me-me!  The "Idiot
book" (as it's affectionately known today) is just text-heavy, setting
up symptoms, tool lists, narratives, etc. Today, I write step 1-do
this-step 2-do that books. But, as god-awful as it goes against the
grain, THAT book accomplished what it set out to do -- help people just
like me stop paying others to do what we certainly could do if we only
tried. Yeah, I know the audience of that book is probably much different
from the one we all write to today, but so what?!

There were no ". . . for Dummies" books back then. THIS was perhaps the
FIRST of that genre.

(BTW, I said "the Idiot book" was one of the two biggest stepping stones
in my development as a tech writer. The other was my dad's passing after
a factory accident. He was so disgusted with me. I wasn't interested in
even trying to learn how to fix or mess with anything. But within months
of his passing, the engine on that '65 Beetle blew and I decided I would
simply follow the Idiot book narration, and if I got in over my head,
I'd take it to Harlan's Sunoco station on Storer Ave. to handle the task
I couldn't. But it never got that far. I did it all. And I went on to
work on virtually all other parts of that car and all my other cars and
household items, etc. The book inspired me and gave me the confidence I
needed. And all these years later, I've written everything from computer
manuals, to factory manuals, to heavy equipment manuals to full site
turn-key operation manuals. And I'm sure my dad is proud of me.)

OK, OK, I really went overboard. But surely some of you have similar
stories how you either tripped into, were pushed into, or walked into
your career.

(And yes, I remain forever a VW fanatic.)



=20

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+poshedlyk=3Dpolysius.com at lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+poshedlyk=3Dpolysius.com at lists.techwr-l.com] On
Behalf Of Sandy Harris
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 10:41 PM
To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Re: Car repair manuals: standards?

Yves Barbion <yves.barbion at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm looking for documentation standards which specifically apply to=20
> car repair manuals.

Are there gov't standards for docs on the vehicles they buy? What about
military?

> Good or bad examples are welcome as well.

Non-standard I'm sure, but with ideas worth considering:

   How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of
   Step-by-step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot
             John Muir

I used it in the 70s, and a web check shows 19th edition is still in
print.
--
Sandy Harris
Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
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