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In technical products, I find few situations in which marketing claims should not be substantiated with facts. The typical tech writer seems obsessed with features--and much mediocre documentation is merely a laundry list of features. A good marcom piece relating to technology will list benefits first, with features that support that benefit.
On the other hand, a good technical documentation set IMHO will deal with the reasons *why* the product is used (benefits to the user) as well as the *how* information--although obviously with a more detailed treatment of the details and with procedural coverage as well.
Whether you or I might be termed a "hack" or a "broadly experienced professional" surely lies in the eye of the beholder!
David
-----Original Message from Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>-----
Mike O. wrote:
When you
> are a tech writer, every claim you write needs to be backed up with an
> actual fact, right in the document.
>
And that's the crux of the issue, it seems to me. I can parse the above
sentence two ways:
1. You _are_ a tech writer (colloquial use of "when," because you are
_always_ a tech writer). Therefore every claim you write needs to be
backed up. Therefore you are personally conflicted when you are asked to
write a document that helps sell the product.
2. Sometimes you're a tech writer; sometimes you're not. _When_ (in the
literal, temporal sense) you are doing tech writing, you need to back up
every claim. When you are doing marcomm, you apply the rules of _that_
genre.
It seems, in this thread, that some individuals are parsing the
situation the first way and some the second. Situations like this tend
to result in people talking past each other.
Personally, I'm a hack. I'll adjust my diction to the rhetorical
situation at hand and write anything for anyone (with a few categorical
exceptions having to do with my personal political and moral views).
I've written speeches, user manuals, advertising copy (print and
broadcast), systems documentation, newspaper editorials, magazine
columns, community organizing guides, poetry, doggerel, book reviews,
white papers, biographical essays, and a bunch of other stuff I'm prolly
fergettin'. I don't have to _be_ any particular species of writer. I
have to endeavor to _be_ a mensch. The rest is just what I _do_ for a
living.
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