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:Re: How to deal with incorrect editing From:"Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 29 Dec 2003 22:35:54 -0800
"whitedh" <whitedh -at- comcast -dot- net> wrote in message news:223694 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
> One cannot communicate in any language if one does not know and use the
> basic tools of that language. After all, Webster's defines "grammar" as the
> system of rules that defines the structure of a language.
I disagree. I've had literally hundreds of product inserts written with
laughably
bad grammar that managed to "communicate" the information necessary to use,
if not enjoy using, the products they documented.
> One reason for the technical communication profession is that engineers,
> developers, and programmers have such a difficult time expressing themselves
> to the public that will hopefully purchase and use their products.
In my experience, most engineers, developers, programmers, managers, etc.,
are quite capable of expressing themselves well enough to produce the kind
of laughable, yet still usable documentation I've described above. The reason
their companies were willing to hire writers was not that their engineers,
developers, programmers, managers, etc., couldn't produce documentation,
but because they had more critical things to do with their time, and because
a *good* writer who could understand the multiple functions of their product
development process well enough could produce better documents in less
time than it would have required for them to do it.
Gene Kim-Eng
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.545 / Virus Database: 339 - Release Date: 11/27/2003
RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4
---
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.
