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Subject:RE: craft vs. science vs. art From:"Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 24 Jun 2002 10:50:41 -0400
Phil,
I still believe you are so focused on process that you are losing sight of technique. Yes, a product development organization needs a process. But that process has to stay at a higher level than giving writers stepwise instructions on how to write a document. If you get past, "here's the due date; here's the template; here's who to send it to for review," you are micromanaging; and that can be counterproductive.
A writer is a creative contributor, just as much as a developer or a mechanical engineer. A writer is not a widget assembler.
At the detail level, you have to rely on craft, which is intimately related to technique. Remember the _technical_ part of "technical writer"? You can argue that technical writing is writing about technical subjects. I would argue that technical writing is writing using specific techniques that have been shown over time to work effectively. Nonetheless, the application of those techniques, and the improvement and innovation of those techniques is mediated by the creative efforts of their practitioners--craftworkers--not by reliance on a static process.
Dick
Phil Levy <PLevy -at- epion -dot- com> wrote:
> The
>process of creating the document doesn't have to change though, is my point.
>
>
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