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Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com wrote:
>
> I think there may be some advantage in having learned the material more
> recently. If I'm teaching/writing something I learned recently, I remember
> the process of learning it and the pitfalls I encountered. If I'm
> teaching/writing something that I learned so long ago that it's second
> nature by now, I'm more likely to forget how little the
> newbies/students/users actually know.
Of course, this is always a danger. But a teacher or a tech writer
should know this danger, and try to compensate for it, regardless of
the level of expertise.
One of the ways that I compensate is by an information edit,
preferably a couple of days after I finish a manual and I'm somewhat
removed from the writing of it. As I read, I try very hard to put
myself into the role of a reader who has no experience of what I'm
writing about. I mark very carefully the places where I make
assumptions about the readers' knowledge, and then I go back and
decide in each case whether more background is necessary, or whether
each assumption is valid for the audience. If anything, I probably
err on the side of over-explaining; my reasoning is that those who
don't need the explanation can skip over it anyway.
Some people would say that this kind of empathic projection is
impossible. However, Keats, Shelley, and dozens of other major
writers have believed that it is, and their success carries enough
weight with me that I believe them. As John Le Carre said, a good
writer should be able to watch a housecat cross the street and know
how it feels to be pounced on by a Bengal tiger. This is good advice
for fiction writing, but I think that tech writers can use it, too,
when they have to size up audiences' needs.
--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
604.421.7189 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"The Queen was in her chamber, a-combing of her hair,
There came Queen Mary's spirit and It stood behind her chair,
Singing, 'Backward and forward and sideways may you pass,
But I will stand behind you till you face the looking-glass.'"
- Rudyard Kipling, "The Looking-Glass"
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