Re: Motivation and satisfaction in technical writing

["Anameier, Christine A - Eagan, MN" <christine -dot- a -dot- anameier -at- usps -dot- gov>]

Mariana Prusorova wrote:
> It would be interesting in what the techwriters find their motivation
for
> working so hard? Please, share some ideas.

For me, there is an inherent elegance to really well-written,
well-designed documentation. Creating order out of chaos... 

> 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.

We're not there yet, not by a long shot. And, even if a lot of
organizations don't recognize this, some of the people best equipped to
design interfaces like that are tech writers, because it's our job to
get inside the users' minds.

> 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"

Explain stuff to them. Perhaps they'll realize, eventually, that your
wisdom is also available in paper and on-screen formats. 

Write the best docs you possibly can, even if nobody seems to be reading
them. Make the docs so utterly irresistible--so easy to read and
impossible to misunderstand--that when somebody grudgingly turns to the
docs because all the usual explainer types are out sick that day, that
person will be awestruck with the clarity and usefulness of the
documentation. 

Christine


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