Re: Tech Writing Skills, College Degrees, Marketable Skills

["Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>]

"Andrew Plato" <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote in message
news:213723 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
<snip>
>
> A person who is a writer *MUST* have a deep and profound understanding of
the
> subject matter. You cannot rightfully call yourself an "author" of
anything if
> you don't understand what it is you're authoring.  Authors do not get on
the
> New York bestsellers list because they use XML and are team oriented. They
get
> on the list because they have supreme control over the material they
author.
>
Wow, I pretty much agree with Andrew (and Goober and others). But one thing
is being overlooked here: what good is knowing your subject well if you
don't know your users? You can be polished in your writing skills and adept
at the technology you're documenting, but if you don't know your audience,
their experience, their knowledge, their comfortability, then the best
writing you could possibly do (even if it wins awards) will go unused.

Chuck Martin



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