Re: Chattiness in manuals

Subject: Re: Chattiness in manuals
From: Laura Lemay <lemay-lists1 -at- lauralemay -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 10:27:20 -0700


Re: paid by the word and chatty writing

I get paid by the word when I work as a freelancer. :)

Magazine articles and books -- are indeed paid by the word. But its not like you get paid a buck a word and then they do a word count and write you a check ("$2134.56"). You are contracted to, say, write 2000 words at a buck a word. if you write too much you have to cut it down (or they will, shudder). Ditto books -- the contract is for, say, 250,000 manuscript words. You're welcome to write more but you have to write at least that much. Screenshots are worth 250 words. (yes, there is a very old joke here about "a picture is worth a thousand words" losing out to inflation)

Chatty technical writing, known as the "conversational style," is highly prized and sought after in the computer book industry. It is more than just making jokes -- there are plenty of Dummies and Idiots writers who don't have the skill in the conversational style and it feels forced and awkward. Conversational style is the ability to write comfortably and make the reader feel like you are standing right there and addressing them as if you know them -- in addition to all the usual tech writing skills of structure and clarity and so on. I cheerfully admit that the conversational style is not to everyone's taste. This is why you can look at computer books before you buy them and then not buy them.

I am pretty good at the conversational style and I like writing in it. I do not think it is the least bit appropriate in corporate documentation unless there is a very specific audience that can accept it (and that audience approach is usually used throughout the entire company messaging -- marketing, product design, etc). Your readers do not get to choose whether or not to buy corporate documentation, so your goal is to piss off the least possible percentage of those readers. Less personality in your writing is better. It took me a long time to come to grips with this; I felt stifled in my work when I was younger ("but it's so BORING!") This is why I started writing computer books. Now that I'm older I'm OK with it. I've found plenty of subtle creativity and style even in less conversational tech writing -- and I still have writing on the side when I'm feeling oppressed as a writer.

Laura
dry rhetoric on toast

--
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Laura Lemay Killer of Trees lemay % lne.com lemay % gmail.com
http://www.lauralemay.com http://blog.lauralemay.com
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^


On Oct 18, 2006, at 4:02 AM, Al Geist wrote:

SaraTörök wrote:

Depends on what you classify as manuals, but in school books (even at university level) and technical litterature, the chatty style is much more common from US writers than it is in Europe, and we tend to get quite disturbed by it.
Paid by the word - probably not full-time technical writers so often, but, again, for authors of hand books, tutorials, technical litterature, this is much more common in US publications. Is this not true anymore?


In my over 30 years of writing, the only time I ever got paid "by the word" was working as a stringer (corespondent, stringer, etc.) for a regional weekly business newspaper. When I wrote for magazines, other newspapers or video productions, I was paid either by the story, the "column-inch," or the script. All of my technical writing has been paid either by the project or hourly, or when I worked as a staff technical writer, hourly based on an annual salary.


As for chatty style writing, I think using it in most technical publications does a disservice to the users, and too often what we thing is funny falls flat on others. I write rather detailed user guides and operation manuals for microelectronic manufacturing systems, or reference guides for complex database management systems. Trying to be chatty in either genre could end up costing my clients a lot of money, and I don't think they would like that, so I save my chatty writing for other venues-essays/op ed pieces, short stories, letters to my kids, my journal, etc.

Al




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot-
To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Chattiness in manuals: From: SaraTörök
Re: Chattiness in manuals: From: David Farbey
Re: Chattiness in manuals: From: Al Geist

Previous by Author: Re: What is Freelancing?
Next by Author: Re: If Bill Gates is such a great philanthropist . . .
Previous by Thread: Re: Chattiness in manuals
Next by Thread: Re: Chattiness in manuals


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads