TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Nobody reviewed the manuals From:<neilson -at- windstream -dot- net> To:Marguerite Krupp <mkrupp128 -at- yahoo -dot- com>, Al Geist <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:13:09 -0400
---- Marguerite Krupp <mkrupp128 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> ... this or that was wrong or didn't work that way. When I investigated,
> the issues were mostly in sections that I hadn't cleaned up, but that
> had been so obscured by the bigger issues that nobody noticed them.
More than once (indeed, several times) I have been asked to provide for review only those portions of the manuals in which I made changes, sometime marked with revision bars. This is to avoid wasting effort re-reading material that has already been reviewed.
Only in the very final review, often after the product has been shipped, have there been complaints that the non-reviewed portion of the manual contained errors. And of course it was the tech writers' fault.
All this sort of stuff (including the failure to RTFM) has been known and hashed about since long before there was an internet, and perhaps before there were computers. There is a PhD in archeology out there waiting for the person who can show for certain whether anyone actually read the cuneiform tablets of Babylon before their discovery in recent times.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Gain access to everything you need to create and publish documentation,
manuals, and other information through multiple channels. Choose
authoring (and import) as well as virtually any output you may need. http://www.doctohelp.com/
- Use this space to communicate with TECHWR-L readers -
- Contact admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com for more information -
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
