Re: Tipoz n Resumes

Subject: Re: Tipoz n Resumes
From: Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 07:08:28 PST

John Fulton writes:

>If these "simple procedures" mean paying more money for the
>documentation, then they're not so simple in the real world. You're
>assuming that management is both rational and willing to increase
>budgets: both dangerous assumptions.

>Scenario 1: If you have a single writer, get another and have them edit
>each other's work. Doubles your documentation costs.

>Scenario 2: If you have a group of four writers, get an editor to edit
>their work. Increases already-high documentation costs by 25%.

All of these scenarios are false. If one hires a single writer, one
has two people involved in documentation: the writer, and the hiring
manager. They should edit each other's work. Or maybe there's someone
else in the company who would like to do editing. No extra money is
required. If the manager is too busy to do editing, he can hand off
an equivalent amount of boring scut-work to the writer (management consists
mostly of boring scut-work), and they come out even.

In a group of four writers, they can all edit each other's work, or the
one that is the best editor can edit the other three, and the one who's
the second-best editor can edit the work of the best editor. The writer
with the heavy editing workload would, of course, be given lighter
writing assignments.

These schemes are trivial in scope and cost nothing.

-- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc.
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139
http://www.pioneer.net/~robertp

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