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Subject:Re: Why'd that take so long? From:John Posada <john -at- tdandw -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 24 Jul 2002 12:37:08 -0700
This reply may not be the advice you were looking for, but...
In reading over the message (several times), it occurred to me that all the
problems you attributed to why it takes long to issue the documents revolves
around styles and formats, and not content/content accuracy. I didn't see
anything involving fact checking, document testing, user reviews, etc.
Is it possible that you are satisfying your requirements for the perfect
looking document, at the expense of the user, who simply needs the document
and doesn't care that there are 256 styles in the catalog when it takes 3
weeks to turn it around?
Make more use of drafts...send them a rough and dirty draft so that they get
something in their hands to work with, then work on the cosmetics.
"Technical Writing" is not only the process of producing an appealing
document...it is helping the user do their job better with documentation and
if it isn't in their hands, they cannot use it.
--
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
john -at- tdandw -dot- com
"Martin R. Soderstrom" <scribbler1382 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote in message news:200207241606 -dot- MAA00599 -at- zealous -dot- cnchost -dot- com -dot- -dot- -dot-
>
> Hey, all. Looking for some advice. I'm the lone tech writer for a global
> satellite television company. It's been agreed that there's enough work
for
> 4 or 5 writers, but due to economics I have trouble even getting a
> contractor in for 3 months. On top of that, the existing docs, procedures
> (what there were), styles, etc. are a freaking nightmare. (e.g. one of
our
> smaller 20 page docs has over 256 styles in it, though only 4 are actually
> in use...when styles are used, of course).
snip
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