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I am finally going to jump in here. I teach Frame at the local University
Extension to current and aspiring tech writers. It is a 5 week, hands on
class. About half of the class is the theory of structuring information and
book design. The same stuff I teach in the Designing Online Documents and
Writing User Guides - both are tool independent. And most of the students
have never been exposed to logically structuring information or book design.
What shocks me is that after talking and showing for hours about the theory
of designing information, structuring stuff and using Frame to do it, my
reviews ALWAYS say that I wasted too much time. My students want to know how
to use Frame to write the books they are going to write.
I even explain now the first day that I cannot teach you to create the books
you are going to write. I can show you how to use the tool and talk about
ways that Frame can be used to logically structure information, but I cannot
show you how to use Frame to create every book you are ever going to write.
Perhaps another teacher can but I cannot.
Logically structuring information is tool independent. And a valuable gift
worth a lot of money. The tool is trivial. If I taught Word - shudder here -
I would talk about the same information design issues.
sharon
Sharon Burton-Hardin
Anthrobytes Consulting
909-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
Vice-president, Programs of the Inland Empire chapter of the STC
www.iestc.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Iggy" <iggy_1996dp -at- yahoo -dot- com>
|
| No, you didn't learn a tool, you learned a technique.
| You used a tools in that learning process. There's a
| big difference there.
|
| They didn't sit there and only teach you how to hold
| the pen, why you use a different sized pen for
| different elements in the draft, how to use a
| protractor or slide rule. Maybe in high school, but in
| college I would think, I would hope, you applied the
| drafting toward some sort of throry or practical
| assignment.
|
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