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Re: Writer vs Author (was Techwriting after the boom)
Subject:Re: Writer vs Author (was Techwriting after the boom) From:"Michael West" <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 9 Jun 2003 10:01:08 +1000
> To readers, grammar & design are nice, but
> ultimately incidental.
Not if ambiguity and confusion prevents them
from being sure of the intended meaning, or finding
the information that they need when they need it. Then
those issues become major obstacles to understanding.
If I have to read each sentence in a user guide three
times to be sure that I understand what its author was
trying to say, then I judge the document to be a failure.
If writers can't be bothered to get their words straight,
we are completely justified in assuming that they don't
have their facts straight either.
Conventions of grammar and punctuation are not
just window dressing. They are part of how our
meaning gets communicated.
I have worked in environments where a misplaced
comma, if not corrected, could have potentially
disastrous results. For most of us, what results from
sloppy writing is not disaster, but merely a low opinion
of the people who produced it.
Information design, too, is not just window
dressing. It's about making the information
usable and accessible. If someone doesn't understand
this, his chances of producing useful documents
are seriously handicapped. I would hope such
people would be encouraged to try their hand
at some other vocation-- one where precision,
clarity, and usability don't really matter.
--
Michael West
Melbourne, Australia
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