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Re: Proof that content is more important than style

Subject: Re: Proof that content is more important than style
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 14:09:16 -0800


Andrew Plato wrote:

If content is such a given, then why are so many writers having such a hard time
getting it right?


I basically agree with your point that tech-writers need to take more responsibility for content. I also think that your list of reasons why they don't is accurate, so far as it goes. However, I think you miss one of the main reasons: working conditions. Far too much tech-writing is documentation triage, with writers brought into a project at the last moment to produce in a hurry. Under these condtions, writers usually lack the time to become experts.

Of course, that's not to say that circumstances relieve them of the need to try, or to do the best possible job under the circumstances. But it does mean that the odds can be stacked against good technical knowledge.

--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177

" A well-proportioned mind is one which shows no particular bias; one of which we may safely say that it will never cause its owner to be confined as a madman, tortured as a heretic, or crucified as a blasphemer. Also, on the other hand, it will never cause him to be applauded as a prophet, revered as a priest, or exalted as a king. Its usual blessings are happpiness and mediocrity."
- Thomas Hardy, "The Return of the Native"




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References:
Re: Proof that content is more important than style: From: Andrew Plato

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