TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Writing documentation for other tech writers? From:"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 25 Mar 2002 08:32:20 -0500
Sella Rush wondered: <<For anyone doing backend/SDK documentation, have you
ever written materials for the tech writers who'll be documenting the end
product?>>
Nope, but I suspect the same principles apply as in any other type of
writing: know the audience needs, and write to satisfy them.
<<I'm thinking it would be useful to include something (a section in the
SDK? a simple FAQ?) that's written directly to their documentation team.
This document would be a repackaging of existing information, laying out hot
issues and explaining the ramifications, rather than forcing those tech
writers to wade through the developer-targeted material--or more likely
relying on their dev staff to trickle the information down.>>
Sounds like an excellent value-added tool. Any way to talk to these writers
and find out what kind of support they expect to need?
--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html
Hofstadter's Law--"The time and effort required to complete a project are
always more than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's
Law."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
PC Magazine gives RoboHelp Office 2002 five stars - a perfect score!
"The ultimate developer's tool for designing help systems. A product
no professional help designer should be without." Check out RoboHelp at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.