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Subject:Re: Users writing their own procedures From:"Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:techwr-l Date:Tue, 20 Jan 2004 12:43:39 -0500
Eileen Neumann wrote:
> I maintain an employee intranet that holds banking procedures. Another
> division has decided that they need their procedures to go online as well.
> As my department doesn't have the resources to start documenting these
> other procedures from scratch, the powers that be have decided to have an
> experienced user document the procedures and have me fix them up
> afterwards.
Nothing wrong with this approach... except the "have me fix them up" part;
I'd make 'em use the stuff raw.
After all, they are the SMEs for those procedures... It might turn out just
fine. Of course, sometimes SMEs write stuff that makes sense only to them.
Tech writers, on the other hand, are burdened with the responsibility to
make sure their docs make sense to everybody.
Either way, I'd take it with a smile, then wait and see. Review it six
months from now and see if they are still happy with this approach. Let us
know...
