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Re: About responsibility and fault

Subject: Re: About responsibility and fault
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 16:53:24 -0700


Bonnie Granat wrote:

Errors in documentation? Stop beating up the poor technical writer and blaming
him or her for the inadequacies of management.

It seems to me that, if writers aren't responsible for their work, then they forfeit the right to be called professionals, and all the complaints about lack of respect are unjustified. If they refuse responsibility, then they are going to be regarded as on a par with filing clerks and receptionists. If you're not responsible, then you won't have status.
Also, I don't see how managers are to be blamed for the quality of documentation. You might blame them for hiring the wrong people, or for routines that allow sign-off on inadequate documentation, but the writers are responsible if they produce an inadequate piece of work - or a brilliant one, for that matter. Managers don't expect to have to micro-manage a professional.

Perhaps that's why some
technical writers feel so forlorn. They are beating themselves up instead of
finding and eradicating the source of the problem.

Really? If anything, some seem to be blaming everyone and everything other than themselves.

--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield

"There'll be tears in the eys of the weak,
And in the eyes of the most strong-hearted,
Tears in the eyes of the miners and wives
When these coal town days are through."
-Jez Lowe, "These Coal Town Days"



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Follow-Ups:

References:
About responsibility and fault: From: Eric J. Ray
Re: About responsibility and fault: From: Kat Nagel, MasterWork Consulting
Re: About responsibility and fault: From: Bonnie Granat

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