Re: TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

["Bergen, Jane" <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM>]

On Wednesday, January 28, 1998 3:08 AM, Damien Braniff
[SMTP:Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK] wrote:
> Now we're jack of all trades - format, graphics etc. You name it and
we're
> expected to do it.  This doesn't, however, get away from the fact that
the
> writing is still paramount.  If you're producing rubbish, no matter
how
> good it looks it's still rubbish.
>
> Damien Braniff
> Technical Author
> PAC International

Hmm. This might be a sort of Zen question....if a tree falls and no one
hears it, etc..... but if you have really good writing and it's
presented so poorly that it's unusable (for example, software
documentation that is visually intimidating or otherwise hard to use),
does the writing matter? It's hypothetical, to be sure, but the point I
used to make to students was that they need to develop BOTH skills in
the current "world of tech writers." For whatever reason (budget cuts,
better technology, stingy bosses, etc.), tech writers often HAVE to draw
upon desktop publishing skills. Many, many companies expect their
writers to produce camera-ready documents.

So the "writing is still paramount" statement is not exactly true. I
would say it may be "somewhat more important" than the information
design skills, but certainly not paramount.

Two cents...adding up,

Jane Bergen
Jane Bergen, Technical Writer,
AnswerSoft, Inc.     Richardson, TX
(972) 997-8355
janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com