Re: book recommendation for technical writers

Subject: Re: book recommendation for technical writers
From: David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 14:54:04 -0500


It's always refreshing when someone is so fixated on a given argument
or observation that he seeks to revisit it so consistently!

With hurricanes, wars, and the vagaries of politics--we know that we
can retreat into the familiar by a veritable murmur of "structured
writing!" or "task analysis!" or, Heaven forfend, "dataflow diagrams!"
on this list.

Whether this kind of consistency is the "hobgoblin" of literary repute
is a matter of opinion.

As for the assertion that "TW is really not about writing"--it appears
that the gentleman has had relatively little actual training on what
"writing" is. Rather than so much obsession about "analysis" as some
sort of separate act, it has always been the case that an essential
part of writing lies in organizing. From that viewpoint, "task
analysis" is a part of this organizational step--at least, for
task-based documentation writing. Of course, task activities are by no
means the only concern of a TW--so task analysis, no matter how
artfully performed, is not by itself a sufficient technique.

David

On 9/24/05, Tony Markos <ajmarkos -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
>
> Recommended Tech Writer Books?
>
> Hint: In the main, TW is really not about writing.

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References:
Re: Why Tech-Writers Should Know About Open Source Technologies: From: Jean Hollis Weber
RE: book recommendation for technical writers: From: Tony Markos

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