Re: The New Communication (was Formality going Bye, Bye)

[Steven Brown <stevenabrown -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Excellent point, Collin. We're not writers, we're
educators.

I don't think we need to throw away the rules of
grammar and start using IM-speak, but we must open our
minds to new and better ways of writing and designing
documentation. I've read some of the stuff I've
written over the last 10 years, and it is BORING!
Unfortunately, most tech pubs managers and editors
would have a heart attack if they saw a sentence
fragment or an exclamation mark in their
documentation.

I'm constantly thinking about how I can make my
content more engaging. I'm not suggesting that we use
humor or silly elements that might distract readers,
but graphics, analogies, and fictional case studies
would go a long way to enticing the reader to learn
and retain the information we present.

One item that constantly gets in the way is the
ongoing concern about translation. If technical
communicators are going to be successful, we must
treat documentation like a product, constantly
evaluating the costs and benefits of less formal
communication. 

Steven Brown
Technical Writer


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content 
delivery. Try it today!. http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l 

Doc-To-Help includes a one-click RoboHelp project converter. It's that easy.  Watch the demo at http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com

To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.