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Subject:Re: SME vs. Audience From:Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Tue, 9 Sep 2003 18:24:12 -0700 (PDT)
The "audience vs. SME" is a concocted problem. It creates an artificial "either
or" situation. Either your "for audience" or "pro-SME." Any sane person knows
this is BS. A good writer is BOTH concerned about the audience AND has strong
subject matter expertise.
The fact is, a technical writer who does not understand the subject matter
isn't going to be nearly as effective as a writer who does. The only way to
make a complex concept comprehensible is to understand the concept.
It seems to me that writers of the font-fondling persuasion artificially
created the whole "SME vs. audience" issue so they could create jobs where
their technical ignorance would become an asset. Rather than struggle with the
difficulty of learning esoteric things like SQL or physics, these writers could
focus on "fun" work (i.e. fondling fonts, setting up methodologies, building
exquisite templates, etc.)
The only way to get people to believe that "fun" work is critical is to create
some artificial "need" for "user advocates." As if the users needed advocates
because they were being victimized and violated by SMEs.
The last few years has seen the SME vs. audience antagonism repeatedly
discredited. Subject matter knowledge is no longer a wish of employers, its
become a requirement. There simply is no reason to employ people that insist
their ignorance is an asset.
Andrew Plato
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