Re: It shouldn't be that hard to write good doc, should it?
Anyone who expressed that "it shouldn't be that hard" to write a manual
clearly has no clue of (a) how much skill it takes to write well, and (b)
how complex and rigorous the discipline of Technical Communication is.
I think that this discussion about the skill required by our profession and the complexities and rigour associated with it is a bit of a non sequitur. I think coding, for example, must be pretty easy, but when I've tried it, I've been so bored by all the tiny details that I find the task unpleasant and unrewarding--in other words, difficult. Likewise, I think I could be a doctor, but the idea of damp orifices of any kind gives me the willies. And I would find all those years of study hard. Not because I couldn't do it, but because I would find it too boring.
Most of choose to become techwriters because we like the challenge of writing, or because we like the challenge of figuring out how something works, or both. It is our wish to make every word count, and we find the task hard because we work hard at it. To other people, perhaps those who whip off a hundred emails a day without a thought to the precision of their words and sentences, writing will seem like a breeze.
I think it is human nature to think that someone else's job is not as difficult as it really is and it is pointless to try to convince someone of the complexities of your job. The only way to change their opinion is to produce something, as Pogue has obviously done, that is far beyond what they think they could do themselves. And, of course, I do that all the time.<g>
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Lyndsey Amott
www.docsymmetry.com
Winnipeg, MB R3G 2J3
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