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Subject:RE: AW: MS Manual of Style for Tech Pubs? From:"Marguerite Krupp" <mkrupp -at- cisco -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 6 Nov 2002 09:56:09 -0500
Eric Dunn sees an oppportunity for unemployed tech writers in pulling
together a comprehensive, universal manual of style... and it's true it
would fill a need and probably be marketable.
BUT...
Having participated in more than one of these exercises myself, and speaking
only from my own experience, I have to say that it rapidly becomes a highly
political exercise. Not only are you talking about corporate image, but
you're talking about changing people's writing styles and meeting users'
expectations.
That's not to say it can't be done, just that it's another of those ideas
that looks great in theory and that is a real migraine-maker in practice.
Again, IME, compiling a style guide is one thing, and getting people to use
it is another. Within a company, I've found that the best way to make sure
the style guide gets used is to involve people in the process of creating
it - particularly including the people most likely to fight it, so they have
a stake in the adoption of those styles. But if you're writing "The
Hitchhiker's Style Guide for Technical Communication," you don't have to
fight that particular battle.
Of course, as usual, YMMV.
Marguerite
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