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Subject:Re: Hardware discussions From:sanders_j -at- TBOSCH -dot- DNET -dot- GE -dot- COM Date:Mon, 21 Jun 1993 10:25:54 EDT
Hi Everyone,
My 14.5 cents:
>David Nadziejka (nadziejka -at- anlbem -dot- bim -dot- anl -dot- gov) says:
>My interest *in this forum* is only the small part of communications that is
>technical writing.
>I agree with Greg Kushmerek; I'd much rather be reading about points
>directly bearing on tech writing than about fax machines.
>"Communication" encompasses things like semaphore, satellite relays, body
>language, sign language, oral presentations, etc., etc., etc.
And these are exactly the things that I'm interested in seeing and talking
about. To my mind, this list is innappropriately named, and really encompasses
Technical Communication, which is an idea the Society for Technical
Communication realized a long time ago and continues to promote. Communication
covers a lot o territory, but it's important territory.
It's becoming harder and harder to seperate the communication medium from
the message and to talk ONLY about writing would seriously impair my ability
to communicate and to do my job effectively. I do presentations, I teach,
I think about how things look on the page, and what pictures should go on them.
In the future, I'd like to be thinking about how a computer program is
conveying its information and how the interactive help is teaching them
about itself. Without talking about a wide range of subjects, I would quite
possibly miss something in the communication field that I'll need later. One
very basic thing I've learned is that a lot of people out there don't know
much about how a fax machine works or how it integrates with the computer.
That's important if I'm ever going to work on some in-house fax-related
projects, and the information has been invaluble.
Re-examining the role of this electronic forum is always important,
because sometimes there are things that we could probably do without, and
in examining the role of the forum and how we want to use it, we find out
more about our job, our lives and our beliefs.
Thank you for giving us the excuse to talk about it, and to express our
opinions.
But it's just like the dress-code thing. If you don't want to read it: DON'T.
