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Missed the start of the thread (off at WorldCon the past week <g>), but it
seems to have begun with the following question: <<The words 'boring' and
'dull' feature heavily in their response, so what I really want to know is
'is technical writing boring??'.>>
I think I'd last about a week if my career involved nothing more interesting
than documenting the Print function for Microsoft Word. That's interesting
the first time, but year after year? <shudder>
I keep life interesting by making sure I do much more than one thing; after
10 years, it's fair to say that if it involves words at FERIC, I'll be
involved at some point, and often throughout the entire word-creation and
revision process. If you're one of those unfortunates who is stuck
documenting a single small software component, it pays to remember that
communication is always a human endeavor. Sometimes the really interesting
things at work focus on our fellow writers, editors, software developers,
and other colleagues. Keep those relationships vigorous and interesting and
you'll find even relatively boring work can be much more tolerable.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"Wisdom is one of the few things that look bigger the further away it
is."--Terry Pratchett
