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The e-mail messages you received certainly don't reflect the reality of
the business
of technical writing. Given the responses of many to your initial
request, I'm assuming
that many people just didn't share their experiences with you -- and
that is skewing
your results.
She's right. Here, we definitely use methodology, we definitely follow a
process, we can tell you what it's going to cost, and our manuals do have
the same look and feel. We consider adhering to our standards -- that
we've defined through careful, tried-and-true audience analysis and
usability testing -- OUR "art." I, however, deleted your survey because
the buzz was that your questions were biased, that you were going to twist
and contort anything anyone said to fit your purpose (which you clearly
did), and that in general your survey was a joke. Be sure to add to your
web page, that while you are an expert at twisted rhetoric, you can't
survey worth ^%! -at- #*!!
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