Due care (was RE: Benchmarking Technical Documentation)

[KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

Richard Smith [mailto:Richard -dot- Smith -at- windriver -dot- com] sez:

>I've heard people say that things like typos, bad grammar, 
>incorrect usage,
>etc. all will cloud the credibility of a doc. That's a load of 
>you-know-what
>IMO. If I need to know the jumper settings to get board X to 
>work, do I care
>if it sounds like it's written by a third grader? No. 

Actually, if the text reads as though it was written 
by someone writing in a third language -- but is 
otherwise decipherable -- that bothers me LESS than 
if it appears to have been written by the third 
grader, or if it is full of typos and general sloppiness. 

That is, my natural assumption, until PROVEN otherwise, 
is that the care and precision with which the 
document was written is an accurate predictor of 
the care and precision applied to the information.

What if that jumper setting would hurt your 
hardware, or require you to go back and re-install 
a lot of software and drivers, if it's incorrect the 
first time out?

How confident are you going to be that the slob 
writer suddenly decided to step out of character 
and check/verify the info, just for you?

/kevin

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