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Subject:Re: 10 Things All Technical Writers Should Do From:David Castro <thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 12 Nov 2004 06:18:06 -0500
So here's a more general question. I would bet that most people who've
been on the list for more than a few months have some "gems" that
they've filed away, printed, or bookmarked (in the archives on the web
site). What have *you* kept, and why?
I went looking through the stuff in my Techwr-L folder, and mostly
found replies to posts that I've made, but found a couple of general
posts that I decided to keep. Here's the oldest one, posted by Anthony
Markatos on February 17, 2000:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Susan Harkus said:
[Principles in procedures writing:]
1. Give value in EVERY procedure step.
2. Eliminate steps that do not give value.
3. Minimise the number of steps.
4. Only provide procedures where they really are needed.
Tony Markatos adds:
5. To quote Ed Yourdon: "Procedure is like dance - it defies [written]
description". Therefore, use graphical techniques as much as possible;
ideally, only use written text to supplement graphics.
6. Present the bigger picture of the procedure first (using graphics) - then
filter down to the details (text). This is how the human mind processes
procedural information - especially the male mind. A big problem with
written-text-only procedural information is that, since it is so
detail-level, it works against the way the mind naturally wants to see
procedure - greatly increasing resistance to reading it.
Susan Harkus also said:
..research indicated that men resented procedures because they felt a sense
of disempowerment...
Tony Markatos responds:
I wish someone would have explained this to my basic military training drill
sargent!
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