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I work with Donna and Carla. I am the writer who believes we need to keep an
element similar to About This Document in the front matter. These are the
reasons I endorse keeping this section, or one similar to it, in our guides:
1. upper-management wants us to produce usable documentation. This piece
provides the audience with information about the guide before they delve
into the meat of the guide.
2. I've done some investigating and it appears to be a common practice
(standard). Of the books on my desk, be it a programming guide, reference
guide, or user based guide, each guide offers a similar section for their
audience, as follows: Who Should Read This Book (2 have this heading),
Intended Audience (this is in a technical SNMP book), How Is This Book
Organized? (3 have this heading), How to use this guide, Audience, How To
Use This Book, and so on.
In addition, I understand that the winners of the STC competitions are not
"the standard", but I think it's a good gauge of what is expected of guides
that win those competitions. Of the five books that I have collected that
won the 2003 STC competition, each guide offers a topic similar to About
This Document, as follows: How This Book Is Organized, About This Book,
Using Your Documentation, About This Guide, and This Guide. Again, depending
on the style, some list the chapters (as ours currently does), some provide
a paragraph or a few paragraphs about the book, et cetera.
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