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Sorry. For some strange reason, I did not class "fiction writers" as being "tech writers" for which this list is directed...although there is bound to be some who wear both hats here and there.
Your response, however, seems merely to restate my premise--that we can and should develop measurable metrics in terms of customer feedback, reductions in help-desk needs, etc. No "engineering" discipline can exist without the ability to quantify results...which was a point of those saying we are "information engineers" as a prime exemplar.
As for the "page intentionally left blank" stuff--if you're using an appropriate template, headers and footers are decided *once* and then done automatically. If you are not doing this, the problem isn't one of style but of unnecessarily burdensome process--and yes, that *is* a matter of efficiency in writing.
But measure "all that we do?" No one in his or her right mind would suggest that this is possible--at least within a reasonable consumption of time and effort. I certainly have not held this is feasible or even desirable--only that it *is* quite possible in most cases to develop more meaningful metrics as "yardsticks" against which we can measure effectiveness. Further, I hold that this is something that should be done much more often than it is.
David
-----Original Message from T. Word Smith <techwordsmith -at- yahoo -dot- com>-----
I would say, it is impossible to measure all of what
we do. At one extreme, you have fiction writers. Try
measuring that. We are not at that extreme, but
elements of subjective taste do apply. For example, do
we use "page intentionally left blank," have headers
and footers on a blank page, or have the page
completely blank; is any one absolutely correct?
No. We can measure trends, such as a decrease in
support calls, reduced time to ship documentation,
etc. But all of what we do cannot be measured, for
there is more art in our craft than there be in the
tasks of pure programmers and pure engineers.
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