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Re: Does a Professional Tech Writer need to follow Chicago?
Subject:Re: Does a Professional Tech Writer need to follow Chicago? From:melonie -dot- holliman -at- AMD -dot- COM Date:Mon, 23 Aug 1999 08:58:11 -0500
Howdy,
Just one comment on this:
My first boss in the tech doc field really beat a few concepts into my
head (When I worked for her, I hated those "mantras". Since then, I
have called her up and thanked her for being so hard on me. Boy, did
I learn TONS from her.) One of those concepts was: "Readability
ALWAYS comes first." She believed that every grammar rule, every
styleguide, everything went out the window if the doc was not readable.
Today, I can usually find a way within the "rules" to make the information
understood. Every once in awhile, though, the styleguide is causing me
more headaches than it is helping. At that point, I quit using it.
I use Chicago as a guide to improve my writing. When it starts bogging me
down and starts making my writing cumbersome, I fly on my own.
Melonie R. Holliman
Technical Writer
CG MarCom
Advanced Micro Devices
