Writing for Asian Readers

[Anatole Wilson <awilson -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM>]

I'm commenting on an area I know very *very* little about, but it occurs to
me that looking at current Japanese manuals may not be the best way to
determine what Japanese manuals should look like.

I've been told by Japanese students at Carnegie Mellon University that there
are few (if any) technical writing programs over there--companies have to send
their employees to schools here in the United States. The students I spoke
to --all of whom had at least a couple of years professional experience--
felt that the "science" of technical documentation and defining user's
preferences in Japan was far behind the information we have in the U.S.

Looking at current manuals and making deductions from them, then, might be
the equivalent of looking at (fill in the most poorly written and designed
manual you can think of) and deciding that it should be the model for all
U.S. technical documents.

Here in the U.S. or abroad, it's better to speak to the users themselves than
judge by what's already out there--unless you can objectively and accurately
measure its success.

Again, I'm speaking from the viewpoint of someone with very little experience
in this field and a less-than-scientific survey of the subject.


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Anatole Wilson                       "If I should say to a novice,
Sr. Assoc. Information Developer     'write from experience only,'
IBM, Santa Teresa Labs               I should feel that this was
awilson -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com                 rather a tantalizing monition
                                     if I were not careful to add,
                                     'try to be one of the people
                                     on whom nothing is lost.'"
all company disclaimers apply        --Henry James
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