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There was never an assumption Al. I knew my audience before I began
documenting. The PM arrived later in the project and wanted to change
previous documentation. You have assumed that my brief discussion in this
email was the entirety of my assessment of my audience. It seems a little
wordy to have to define the nature of the programmers I referred to in my
brief discussion about being asked to unecessarily define an acronym.
The few readers of the short document knew what a GUI was. It may be true
that not all programmers that build GUIs know what a GUI is, but the
programmers building the GUI that I was documenting knew what it was. The
document was to support changing from one system to a new system and I
occasionally referred to GUI features that differed between the two systems.
It was a very small group. I knew my audience before I entered the
discussion with PM and he thought that he needed to be a part of the
documentation process for some reason. Now don't you see how that my
discussion of the PM and the programmers is a little too much overhead for a
discussion about defining acronyms?
On a side note: The project fell apart on its own merits after I left
because the client manager was only bringing on people to get started on a
project, then he would bring in more people to create dysfunction so the
project would fail and need to be re-started. He was making a deliberate
effort to prolong his career so that he would not be forced into early
retirement. His friend and manager stayed on after his own retirement to
help enable the cycles of dysfunction. I talked to the pseudo-PM a few
years later and he had nothing positive to say about how things turned out
and he didn't feel much like sharing. I get the best projects.
Lauren
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
> Behalf Of Al Geist
> Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 11:45 AM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: Yet another nitpicky style question
>
> Lauren wrote:
>
> Never underestimate the user that resents you telling him
> something he doesn't know. He will always find a way to
> correct you. Like when the old skin-picking, pseudo-project
> manager told me to define GUI in my document written for
> programmers. "No. Really. Programmers know what a GUI is,
> defining it will only be insulting." "But I think it's
> better to define it." The retort I wished I could have said,
> "Why? Do you really think that your ignorance is more
> intelligent than their knowledge?"
>
>
>
> You assume that all programmers know what GUI stands
> for....never assume...ever. What is wrong with identifying
> on first occurrence what GUI stands for (Garbage Union
> International, Grench Underwriters, Inc....) and remove any
> ambiguity. Remember, there is a fine line between ignorance
> and arrogance.
>
> Al Geist
> Technical Writing, Help, Marketing Collateral, Web Design and
> Award Winning Videos
> Voice/Msg: 802-658-3140
> Cell: 802-578-3964
> E-mail: al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com
> URL: http://www.geistassociates.com (Online portfolio and
> resume) See also:
> URL: http://www.geistimages.com (Fine art photographic prints
> for home or office and beautiful note cards for all occasions.)
>
>
>
>
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