RE: What to look for in a technical editor

[Kim Roper <kim -dot- roper -at- pixelink -dot- com>]

Mark Baker said of engineers:  

> It is this failure 
> of imagination, not poor language skills that make them (often) poor 
> communicators. 

That is not my experience at all.  Engineers do tend to be more
literal-minded than most, but I've found that that can be an asset in
figuring out the needs of the user.

I've found that the issue isn't one of imagination at all.  It's that the
view of product is naturally different for the person designing it.  Me, I
have a much better idea of what I can do with a product once I've played
with the nuts and bolts, and I start to take basic functionality for
granted.  "Of course the product does *that*; that's obvious (now).  But did
you know that is also does this really cool little thing if you push it just
so?"

It's also a matter of getting too close to the product, taking the
principles for granted and inadvertantly making vast leaps of logic.  *That*
could happen to anyone, and generally does.

Cheers ... Kim
kim.roper at pixelink.com
http://www.pixelink.com/

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