"Know thy audience"; was: RE: What is "well Written"?

[John Posada]

> Some of my worst experiences as a manager have been the result of
> technical writers trying to be "creative" instead of being
> consistent and just following the specs and style guides. 

> > Many job descriptions I've seen have listed some sort of
> > information synthesis as a job duty, and while I find that
> > requirement to be hopelessly vague (do they mean like "Make
> > something up"?), I do count it as a clue pointing to 
> > conceptual creative work as an element of our job 
> > description. 

Problem solving creativity, yes. Writing creativity, not so much.
Here's how I want to be creative at my job. I walk out of a meeting
where all kinds of strange things are said, defined, and required. I
sit at my desk and try to figure out how I'm going to make all that
wierd stuff look like the normal stuff. 

I don't want the deliverable to look creative. I want it to look
exactly like all the other stuff coming out of the department.

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer

"They say everyone needs goals. Mine is to live forever.
So far, so good."