Re: Depth of Focus

[Bonni Graham <Bonni_Graham_at_Enfin-SD -at- RELAY -dot- PROTEON -dot- COM>]

Steve Fouts writes:
"It may just be that we already have a medium for discussing complex topics
(the STC journal, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, The
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, etc.) and the net/Email
provides us with the opportunity for micro discussions such as we are
seeing.

What do YOU think?"

I would tend to agree (this is my other swing of the pendulum -- see "substative
issues").  I view this forum as a chance to get some of my more practical
questions answered.  (Although I am kind of getting tired of the tool of choice
discussion -- it's almost always a Ford-vs-Chevy or PC-vs-Mac discussion that,
in the final analysis, is more visceral than anything else.  Maybe we could
digest those topics separately and simply download them to whoever asks the
question the next time?)

Saul raises a good point, but the opposite side of the coin is that the
questions being asked here are obviously not getting answered anywhere else (or
they wouldn't be asked, right?).  The corrollary to that is that the questions
that are not getting asked here _are_ being asked and answered elsewhere.

I'm very uncomfortable with the idea that this forum should be viewed as
"representative" of technical writing.  Maybe lurking employers are viewing it
that way, but they're really doing themselves a disservice if they are.  We have
to have somewhere to "let down our hair" and ask the "stupid" questions -- how
can we learn, otherwise?

Bonni Graham                               |
Technical Writer                           |
Easel Corporation, ENFIN Technology Lab    | Never tell people how to
Bonni_Graham_at_Enfin-SD -at- relay -dot- proteon -dot- com | do things.  Tell them
President, San Diego STC                   | what to do and they will
                                           | surprise you with their
NOTE: apparently my email address needs    | ingenuity.
to be typed exactly as it appears here,    |
punctuation and all, or the system gets    |          --George Patton
upset.                                     |