RE: More than a writer (LONG)
to me offline, we're all more than our titles suggest. "
All I can say is " Oy, Ain't that the TRUTH!" What a great example of how we need to determine, to the extent possible, what our readers need from our writing. Thanks for sharing.
Melissa
From: Steven Brown To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Subject: More than a writer (LONG) Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:43:07 -0800 (PST)
This morning a friend shared this interesting story. I immediately thought about a response that I posted to this group yesterday arguing that we should be more than "writers."
Gene recently bought a desk from a major furniture manufacturer and its delivery was prompt. Upon unpacking it, he found that the handles on the desk drawers were installed on the inside of the drawers!
Thinking the desk defective, he immediately called Customer Service to return it. A week later he has a new desk...but its handle are installed the same way!
This time, though, Gene takes a moment to read the instructions. Buried deep in text on page three he finds an explanation. It seems the handles are installed this way so that the desk will fit inside the box it's delivered in. The customer is expected to move them.
What can we technical writers learn from Gene's experience?
We cannot count on our customers to read the great documentation we write. Gene followed his intuition in unpacking his new desk. He didn't think he needed help with this seemingly simple task. Our challenge is to anticipate his needs.
The person who prepared the instructions (who, in fairness, may or may not have been a technical writer) did his job. He was a "writer," in that he composed a simple, straigtforward note to explain why the drawer handles were installed as they are. It was accurate, grammatically correct, and probably adhered to their style guide.
A good technical writer -- one who does more than simply "write," someone who adds value to his employer -- would have said, "No, this traditional instruction pamphlet is inadequate. What we need is a sticker on the drawer that explains why the handles are installed on the inside." The good writer might also have initiated a discussion with the company's customer service department to let them know that customers might call to return their "defective" product; he might have provided some guidelines about how to handle those calls so that the company doesn't incur the costs of:
- Handling the call. - Shipping the desk back to the warehouse. - Handling the desk when it arrives. - Repackaging returned desks. - Customer dissatisfaction in general.
A good technical writer might also have suggested that the handles should not be installed on the inside of the drawer. Better to package them in a bag and tape the bag inside the drawer.
I keep coming back to my mantra, that we're more than "writers," or at least we should be. Adding value, reducing costs, and increasing sales will get you more attention than changing "enter" to "type" or ensuring that we never use contractions. As someone suggested to me offline, we're all more than our titles suggest.
Steven Brown
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