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>Should we
>even think of marketing communication as a subset of technical communication
>... or just a subset of advertising?
I feel more comfortable thinking of it as a subset of advertising, for exactly
the points John mentioned. There may be exaggerations of features, there
may be promises of features that are only under development.
The documentation should reflect what -is-, the marketing and advertising
literature are more appropriate to reflect what -can be-.
And I don't want to imply that I'm demeaning marketing writers. That form
of writing has its place in the corporate structure, and it is an important
place. (If they don't sell the product, they don't need the manuals...) In
fact, it's got to take an important skill set to create good marketing
writing that will catch the reader's eye.
Rick Lippincott
Boston Technology
Wakefield, MA
rjl -at- bostech -dot- com
