Re: Microsoft wants journalists, not tech writers?

["Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Some random thoughts...

- Do we have any more sources for this info about MS hiring tech-mag
journalists?

- I wonder if they tried conveying their new writing style requirements to
their current technical writers? It seems they would at least owe them that
courtesy and let them rise to the challenge.  Does MS even have a coherent
definition of their new requirements, or do they think that hiring a new
batch of writers will magically transform their docs into something better?

- What exactly is the problem they are trying to solve? I have never
complained about the quality of docs for MS products. I have always
respected their docs group, based on the quality of what I read (I don't
know any of them personally). Their work has served as and example to raise
the quality of user docs for many other companies. Heck, in the '90s I made
a living by creating WinHelp systems that followed the MS Style Guide and
looked exactly like Windows help .

- When/if I buy the next version of Windows, I expect real help, not
infotainment.

- This is a fad. Once these journalists have worked there a year, their
resumes will say "Technical writer" and they will enter the general tech
writer labor pool along with all the converted English majors, converted
engineers, converted real estate agents, and everybody else converted to
tech writing by some other path.

- Once these journalists get hired, they will probably turn up on this list
trying to figure out how to do user-oriented tech writing. Maybe some of
them are lurking now.

- Hiring tech-magazine types is not a bad idea, since tech journalists are
used to writing articles slanted toward Microsoft and Windows products in
general.

- Also a lot of tech-mag writers are probably available right now. And
Microsoft's senior tech writers have probably topped out their salary scale.

- Regarding the issue of respecting facts, honoring the truth, etc...I went
back and checked the online help in my copy of Word 97. In all fairness to
Microsoft, there is a Troubleshooting topic for "Word won't save my master
document..."

It goes on to describe some workarounds, and even provides the INCLUDETEXT
alternative, very similar to the advice we provide on this list. So MS
tacitly acknowledges that there is a problem. However, it is too tacit.

An objective journalist would say "Many users have reported sudden and
unexpected corruption and data loss." and have notes to back it up.

An editorial journalist wuld say "Don't use Master Documents. If you do, be
prepared for data loss." and have his own test logs to back it up.

Mike O.



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