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Subject:Re: Are we just secretaries? From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 26 Oct 2000 11:49:31 -0700
Mariposa BY wrote:
> maybe it's just the mood I am in today - but I have
> been working on an installation guide for two weeks.
> As most of it is code that I don't know - the
> programmer (who is LEP - the politically correct term
> for Limited English Proficient) has to write it and
> then I write it in correct English - and also format
> tons of lines of code so that the columns are even and
> all code is in the correct style - and all that jazz.
Maybe you should consider getting more involved in the work. Even if
you do't have time to learn how enough programming to know what
you're writing about, you could try to learn more about what you are
documenting. Very few programmers, no matter what their language
skills, are capable of writing well. Of course, there are exceptions
- I'm fortunate to be working with some myself; in fact, considering
that some of them have done books, their ability really raises the
bar for me! However, as talented as programmers are in their own
fields, many of them simply lack the ability to explain things well.
Like most people, they make too many assumptions about what their
audience knows. Some don't have the patience to explain.
Unless the programmer you're working with is one of the exceptions,
try understanding what you're formatting. Then insist that the
questions you have to ask are included in the manual. Some of your
questions may be due to the fact that you're not a programmer
(assuming you aren't), but many will reflect what isn't going into
the explanations. In other words, try to become a collaborator
instead of a formatter.
> Geez. I feel like a secretary. I am not writing - I am
> making it pretty - formatting it - and also
> re-writing his writing. But executive secretaries -
> don't they do that too?
"Making it pretty" is designer work, and quite interesting in its
own right, if you learn what you're doing. Very few secretaries,
executive or otherwise, are designers.
However, why denigrate secretaries? Anybody who doesn't appreciate
how much a good secretary can keep an office together hasn't been
noticing, and deserves to have their mail lost, their reservations
confused, and their copies not done on time :-)
--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
604.421.7189 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"All those people that you mention,
Yes, I know them, they're quite lame,
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name."
- Bob Dylan, "Desolation Row"
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