RE: Due care (was RE: Benchmarking Technical Documentation)

[Kerstin -dot- Molthagen -at- etas -dot- de]

Hello Bill!

Bill Swallow wrote:



>*** 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?
>FWIW, I've read some beautifully wordsmithed crap, and I've read some
>horrifically wordsmithed dead-accurate info. I'll disagree with Andrew to
a
>degree - not all valid content is readable. BUT, most is somewhat
readable,
>and if the info's dead-on, I can overlook the poor grammar. So, I guess
I'm
>not confident in any info I read until after I've read and validated it.

Same with me. I agree with those who say content comes first, but I have
read enough documents where bad word usage, grammar and/or formatting
obscured the content beyond recognition to recognize the importance of
these matters. (Fortunately, in most cases the authors are not more than 2
rooms away, and I get the information I need in time.) Typos are, in my
experience, usually less damaging.

[...]

Ciao,
Kerstin



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