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"Too Good" (was: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years - Help!)
Subject:"Too Good" (was: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years - Help!) From:"Andrea Brundt" <andrea_w_brundt -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 24 Oct 2003 11:16:32 -0400
Goober wrote:
"2. Determine why the documentation was viewed as "too good" in the first
place."
This reminds me of an interesting conversation yesterday. It was a long,
somewhat heated discussion with my boss, who had just informed me that a
large documentation project was going to be written and managed entirely by
trainers who have very little writing or project management experience, with
only the slightest amount of support from me.
I went on at great lengths about the risks involved in this. I was trying to
be very factual, explaining that while their subject matter knowledge would
be a big asset, the other gaps in their skill set would slow the process and
reduce the quality of the end product.
I had a pretty good head of steam going, when my boss pointed out that the
quality of the documentation was not really an issue. In her experience,
clients were just fine with any level of quality in the documentation,
provided it looked professional and the trainer was competent and
knowledgeable enough to fill in the gaps and help the learners meet their
objectives.
This seems to be a situation where 1000 pages of crap with a nice title page
and well-fondled fonts will meet the business needs just fine. It was an
eye-opener for me, laying bare the fact that this company's objectives and
my skills & interests are diverging rapidly. I could easily feel all
devalued and unappreciated and cry about not being able to feel the
fulfillment one gets from writing well...but in reality, I just need to find
something fulfilling to do, either here or at another company. I think it
was a cosmic invitation to get my resume together.
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