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Re: Motivation and satisfaction in technical writing
Subject:Re: Motivation and satisfaction in technical writing From:Tom Murrell <trmurrell -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 24 Jun 2003 07:09:26 -0700 (PDT)
Well, Mariana, welcome to the wonderful world of technical
communication. Most of the time, everyone will agree that documentation
is needed, but my experience and most studies I have seen indicate that
your 5% figure probably isn't that far off. The general human attitude
seems to be that we need documentation but we don't read documentation.
(Heck, I don't unless I'm desperate. As I tell people, I know the kind
of folks who write the stuff. Why would I read it? <g>)
Seriously, though, I write for those who do read the stuff. What do I
care if only 5% of those who need the information will read the
documentation? I write for that 5%. They will also be the ones that the
others come to for information. So I figure they ought to have the
right stuff to pass along to their peers.
And I've been in situation where I knew the product, features, or
systems better than anyone else, because I was the only one who
approached them from a global perspective. A lot of people working in
telecom, for example, seem to focus on their part of the system.
They're lost when they stray outside their area of expertise. I, too,
have been asked to explain things to these people when they won't take
the time to read the stuff I've written. Interestingly, it seems to
make people think I'm more valuable as a knowledge resource than if I
was 'just' a writer.
So I'll end where I started. Welcome to the wonderful world of
technical communication.
Tom Murrell
--- Mariana Prusorova <mprusorova -at- hotmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> It would be interesting in what the techwriters find their motivation
> for working so hard? Please, share some ideas. In software
> development particularly, the latest trends are for "zero
> learning" - interfaces are so easy to navigate that the users don't
> need to read any documents. The usability test in our company also
> proved that only about 5% are refering to the help or printed
> documentation of any kind. As a freshman in the branch (2 years) I am
> starting to loose my motivation - for whome am I acually writing?
> I waist my time writing whitepapers for my colleagues from
> development departments, then they come to me asking: "Please explain
> me how it works, I know that you know it you have written about it
> probably.., and you know, I don't feel like reading whitepapers"
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