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Subject:Re: "Obvious" warnings - drawing the line From:"Simon North" <Simon -dot- North -at- synopsys -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 2 Aug 2002 09:24:36 +0200
> I've been following the thread about warning that are so obvious as to
> be stupid, and it seems that the burning question -- and the practical
> one for technical writers -- is: Where do you draw the line between
> something that "anybody oughta know" and something that people may
> legitimately not be aware of and thus have a legitimate need to be
> warned against?
At the risk of stating the obvious, that surely comes under the
category of knowing the intended user. However, some guidelines that
often help me with deciding on warnings is the (European) regulations
that state that you must declare the intended use, but must take
account of usage that may be considered to be 'resonably likely'.
Search on the web for the phrase "intended use" and you will turn up
lots of sources, including some quite good ones from the FDA.
Simon North
Simon J North BA(Hons) EngTech(CEI) FISTC ARAeS TMIEIE MIPRE
Staff Technical Writer, Synopsys GmbH, Herzogenrath, Germany
"Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days", Sams.Net ISBN 1-57521-396-6
Geek code block, PGP key on request.
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