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Subject:RE: What Are Writing Skills? From:"Neumann, Eileen" <ENeuman -at- franklintempleton -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 21 Feb 2005 15:47:40 -0500
I've worked with non-writers a lot. The problems I see are not so much the odd grammar slip or typo - those are really not that crucial and easily fixed. The problems they have are with structure. They have difficulty putting the correct information into the appropriate place in their document and building hierarchies of information. Yes you can follow what they say if you have the time and motivation to do so. However it's a bit of a pain to try and figure out their writing. For me, the ability to structure is a writing skill.
Structure structure structure - even that there is such a concept for documents is not clear to non-writers. This is analysis, yes. But technical folks don't seen to easily apply their analytical skills to documentation. Don't know why.
My 2 cents for today,
Eileen Neumann
Business Rules and Procedures
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Markos [mailto:ajmarkos -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 1:22 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: What Are Writing Skills?
Just out of curiosity, what is meant by "writing
skills"? I mean, grammar aside, if the TW knows the
product and the users, he/she is going to be able to
write user friendly documentation about it. If not,
nothing is going to save him/her. Isn't the real need
analysis skills - not writing skills?
Tony Markos
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