Re: Damnit Jim, I'm a Writer, not a Programmer II: The Wrath of K ahn

["Martin Soderstrom" <scribbler1382 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

It would seem to me that you are all right, in varying degrees.  But
something that no one seems to be taking into consideration is the old "know
your audience" adage.  If you're writing for developers or engineers, and
relying on your in-house SMEs to do your job for you (find mistakes, confirm
how wonderful you are, etc.) your books are going to suck.  Period.  Oh,
your work may be chocked fuller of facts than cellulite cells in Oprah's
butt, but they're not going to tell anyone =how= to do anything.

And the idea that having multiple SMEs removes your onus to understand what
you're saying is ludicrous.  SMEs are about as meticulous as a Nascar driver
reading a map on a bank turn in Tallahassee.

For myself, I most definitely consider myself a "writer" first (as my really
bad fiction can attest), but I also take my level of technical expertise
=extremely= seriously.

All IMHO, of course.  ;)





^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, July 15-18 in Washington, DC
The Help Technology Conference, August 21-24 in Boston, MA
Details and online registration at http://www.SolutionsEvents.com


---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.