TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
We have recently started listing the contributors to a document under an
"Acknowledgements" heading in the front matter. Here's an example:
Research Computer Services would like to acknowledge the people who
contributed to this publication. They are:
Price System Subject Matter Expert: S Lothe
Credit System Subject Matter Expert: D Lange
Technical Writer and Editor: S Jelus
It helps create a sense of teamwork, ownership, and accountability for the
developers/SME's, who can sometimes be disinterested in the documentation
and reluctant to divulge what they know. Besides, why shouldn't people get
credit for their work? Should we only acknowledge the authors of newspaper
columns and novels? (I know my software technical documents often feel like
novels by the time I'm done with them.)
Giving author credit makes people feel good about their work. And it
doesn't cost as much as a bonus. It also supplies a human contact if
someone needs more information or finds a mistake.
I've been asked to add this information to our html help as well. I'm not
sure exactly how I'll do that, since it doesn't really have front matter.
Does anyone have any ideas about that?
I'm on the digest.
Susan Jelus
Research Computer Services, Inc. (a subsidiary of NCR)
Dayton, Ohio USA
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Buy RoboHelp Deluxe starting at only $798: you'll get RoboDemo, the hot new
software demonstration tool that's taking the Help authoring world by storm,
together with RoboHelp Office. Learn more at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.
---
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.
