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Re: What Are Writing Skills?

Subject: Re: What Are Writing Skills?
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 14:01:45 -0800


Tony Markos wrote:

I must say, this sounds like systems analysis skills
to me.

Well, as I say, structure and subject matter do need to work together. The main difference, I suppose, is that a knowledge of structure is practical theory, while system analysis is a particular application of that knowledge.

That said, there may some non-technical aspects to having a knowledge of structure. For example, there may be a piece of information that is important to know, but which embarrasses your client or employer - say, a bug or missing feature. How do you include this information without making your client or employer look foolish? Dealing with such a matter is more of a rhetorical skill than the result of system analysis.


My Comment: In terms of documenting systems, of
course English Departments don't understand how to
structure documentation! As Ed Yourdon (Data Flow
Diagram guru) teaches: Systems are multidimensional;
English (text) is one dimensional; it is not possible
to effectively document a multidemensional system
using single dimensionsional text.

I could say exactly the same thing about a novel or a poem. Reality consists of a complex series of interlocking systems, and any attempt to describe them using language is going to be incomplete and inexact. Writers in all sorts of fields feel this limitation regularly. In this sense, documentation is only a special case of writing in general.

--
Bruce Byfield 604-421-7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield

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