RE: This too is technical communication

Subject: RE: This too is technical communication
From: "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>
To: "Mike Starr" <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>, "Stuart Burnfield" <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au>
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 10:00:33 -0600

Mike Starr wrote:

> My usual approach is to go to an SME and ask one or two
> pointed questions about specific details of the product.
> However, there are times when I need to learn things from the
> ground up, like when I'm learning a totally new technology. <snip>

Absolutely. But in that case, you're not _feigning_ ignorance, and your
ignorance isn't some sort of _advantage_ (as some others have suggested)
-- it's an _obstacle_ to be _removed_ as quickly as possible.

> But at the same time, I learned a long time ago that we
> technical writers can't bluff our way through it or pretend
> we understand complex products when we really don't. If we
> don't understand it almost well enough to join the
> development team, we'll have a hard time explaining it to the
> customer.

Couldn't agree more! You simply can't write clearly about something you
don't understand. That always leads to ambiguities, confusing
statements, and weasel-words.

Lack of knowledge is never an asset, so neither being dumb nor playing
dumb is a good idea. If you don't already have the necessary foundation
knowledge in an area you need to write about, by all means acquire it.
But if you _do_ have that foundation knowledge, use it to ask smarter
questions! (If you're a competent tech writer, you'll figure out how
much of the foundation knowledge to include for your audience without
having to role-play a forklift driver.)

Stuart Burnfield wrote:

> I don't understand where playing dumb comes into it. I know
> some things about the product and the users, I don't know
> others. I ask questions to find out the things that I need to
> know but don't.
<snip>
>
> The SME has a lot of information. Some of it I already know,
> some I need to know, some I don't need directly but may be
> useful as background. I need to use my TW skills to pass the
> useful info on to the readers in a clear and accessible
> format. No-one in this transaction is an idiot or a forklift
> driver--not the SME, not me, not the users.

Exactly. Most of the time, we're busy here. We don't play "let's
pretend" I'm ignorant. If I'm ignorant of something, I don't celebrate
it or defend it as an asset. It's a liability that needs to be
corrected.

I do my best to correct my ignorance on my own, so that it imposes the
least burden possible on others. Anything else would be inconsiderate.

"It's my opinion and it's very true." :-)

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------







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References:
Re: This too is technical communication: From: Mike Starr

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