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Subject:Re: Are you a writer? From:John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 28 Feb 2002 05:32:48 -0800 (PST)
> Here's a question...what if your work is a combination of the two?
> Many
> times, I take what the SMEs have written in tech doc and massage it
> in user
> doc and then see if I haven't made any mistakes in expression with
> the SMEs.
>
> Then, there is the work I do with the UI specs and the task
> list...explaining the task the best way I know how (drafting it out
> from
> talking with the SMEs and looking at the UI specs and playing with
> the prototype) and then reviewing the work with them.
>
> Where does the content ownership go in those cases?
Why is it important to know what you are? Sometimes I'm a writer,
sometimes I'm an editor. This changes MANY times during a day.
I don't think anyone, including Andrew, said it was bad to be one or
the other. I think what's he's tilting at is when someone is one and
tries to pass themself as the other.
The only danger to this is that if someone is an editor and doesn't
know HOW to write but thinks they do, then the first time they sit
down with a blank screen on one monitor, a big application on the
other, and a stack of specs in the middle, they won't know where to
start and what they create will be substandard.
If you say you are a writer and know how to write, cool.
If you say you are an editor and you know how to edit, cool too. I do
not want to one of them, though I'd like to have the skill, which I
don't
On the flip side...editing is a skill also. If you don't know how to
edit and try to pass yourself off as one, then the first time you are
handed a 300 page manual, you are not going to do a credible editing job.
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