Re: The Old Argument: FrameMaker vs. MS Word

Subject: Re: The Old Argument: FrameMaker vs. MS Word
From: "Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 10:46:57 -0500

Sharon Burton-Hardin wrote

> I know a lot of nice writers who smith words
> well, but I can't bring them in to work with us. They think they don't
need
> to know technical stuff, or they have no idea how to design a help screen
to
> be useful, or they can't add to the UI development cycle because they have
> no idea what the MS standard for something is or how to find out what it
is.
> They know little about usability studies in docs or anything else or
> testing. They don't know about good visual design. And they wonder why
they
> can't command high hourly rates

Thank you for making my point for me so well. You are turning away good
writers because they are not Jacks of all trades. That is precisely what is
wrong with the profession at the moment. Look at the list of skills you have
given. No one can master all those skills. If you ask them to, either they
will do one or two things well and the rest badly, or they will do
everything poorly.

Writers should be expected to know writing and technology and know them
really well. They should work in teams with designers, media experts, and
production people who know their own trades really well.

No one expects a software developer to master CDs, design the silk screen
for the CD, design and write the insert for the jewel case, DTP the insert,
prepare the color separations and work with the printers and the CD pressing
plant. More and more we recognize that we shouldn't expect them to do UI
design either, and that that is a separate trade to be practiced by experts.
We expect software developers to understand software design and implement
efficient robust algorithms. And we pay then really well.

The Jack of all trades demands neither high pay nor respect. Highly paid
writers write. They don't DTP.


---
Mark Baker
Senior Technical Communicator
OmniMark Technologies Corporation
1400 Blair Place
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K1J 9B8
Phone: 613-745-4242
Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com
Web: http://www.omnimark.com






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