Re: Help - my consultants cannot write!

["Michael West" <mike -dot- west -at- bigpond -dot- com>]

> I am in desperate need of tech writer training for my consultants. I
> have a bunch of information security consultants who cannot write. Its
> infuriating. I edit their material and I want to wring their necks.
> They blather and yammer on about this and that - I need to teach these
> people how to succinctly express complex ideas and write reports.

Forget it. Clear writing requires clear thinking. Well-educated people can
write clearly and succinctly. People who haven't developed that skill by the
time they finish their education probably never will.

You could try sending them to your local Info Mapping franchise to help them
learn to organise their blather. Well-organised blather often passes for
clear writing. A small percentage of them will benefit from the course.

My memory may be faulty, but I seem to remember a certain discussion in this
forum, a while back, in which one contributor maintained that "everyone
knows how to write" and that the most important consideration in technical
communication is how much the writer knows about the subject matter. Has
that person changed his mind, or have I imagined the whole thing?
--
Mike West

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

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
http://www.doctohelp.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