Re: I had say it because I was afraid no one else would.

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

Dan Goldstein wrote:
 > Point well taken. "Some" is indeed the word that Pogue forgot.
 >
 >> -----Original Message-----
 >> From: Gene Kim-Eng
 >> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 3:46 PM
 >> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
 >> Subject: Re: I had say it because I was afraid no one else would.
 >>
 >> No, I would have referred to "some tech writers"
 >> rather than single one person out for public criticism.
 >>
 >> I only make negative comments about a particular person's
 >> work directly to that person in an appropriate one-to-one setting.


I see what you're object to, and I agree about the over-generalized 
complaint against all tech writers, and the way it was done. The mantra 
that guides good managers is to praise publicly and criticize privately. 
But Pogue's column seems more of the "Floggings will continue until 
morale improves" school. One wishes he'd save these excoriations for his 
upcoming keynote address to the STC convention, where he can deliver 
them constructively to his target audience without whipping up the lynch 
mobs against technical writers.

But I don't know, maybe Pogue the Columnist was simply sacrificing the 
strawman "technical writer" to drive his readers toward sending in their 
anecdotes. A NYT columnist is in an advantageous position to exert this 
sort of old-fashioned demagoguery, to prime the flow of correspondence 
with his readers. The keynote could be enriched with examples of bad 
tech writing sent in as a result of this column. Fabulous entertainment.

A guy in Pogue's position, with so much experience behind him and such a 
vast potential readership in the NYT audience, should be criticized for 
dogging it. Submitting such hackneyed criticisms for publication, and 
framing them in hokey rustic common sense solutions (the advice about 
fishing for the right words struck me as UTTERLY delirious) amounts to 
little more than a rant. Ultimately, I think his insistence on 
demonizing jargon is an amateurish, self-important, and reductionist 
approach to technical information. That is my biggest concern with the 
posture of this column.

To Pogue the Tech Writer's credit, I believe that making a difficult 
subject readable is one way to express a commitment to clear 
communication. I think his motivation must be something like 
"popularizing", the way Carl Sagan and certain other dedicated 
professors of deep things have done. They obviously care a great a deal, 
both about the subject and about sharing their knowledge through 
outreach, but BZZT! that is not an attribute of technical writing.

I would move Pogue's focus to the 'technical communication' hopper. 
He'll be perfect for the STC keynote, and I hope someone there keeps him 
honest when he sloshes over with his TC POV onto TW.

Ned Bedinger, critic-at-large
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com


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

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -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%40web.techwr-l.com


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

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

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat