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Subject:Information Mapping From:Sarah Mahoney <smahoney -at- U -dot- WASHINGTON -dot- EDU> Date:Tue, 1 Feb 1994 09:12:22 -0800
I'd like to "second" what Stephen says about Information Mapping.
I have found it to be very useful in some circumstances, and not
so useful in others. I agree that the best approach is to analyze
the project and use whichever writing style or format which best
satisfies the demands of that project.
> IN response:
> > Don't dismiss it outright, however. Information Mapping was an attempt
> > at rewriting old, common sense presentation formats for sciences --
> > flowcharting, spacial relationships, recipes, procedures, etc. In trying
> > to turn IM into a science, IM authors gave it big time bog down.
> >
> INfo Mapping is also a business, of teaching and training. As such it is
> a sound idea reified into a full blown "way to do things". It also
> stresses the info to be mapped into predetermined slots. It always pushes
> too hard on the doc writer to have a diagram in the same place on every
> page. It does offere some nice training for writing chunks of language
> and for identifying what those chunks do. It offers high predictablility
> for readers--same stuff in the same place on eery page. We shouold take
> what is useful from it and modify it to suit the particular demands of a
> particular piece of doc.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> > Stephen A. Bernhardt >
> > Department of English, Box 3E >
> > New Mexico State University >
> > Las Cruces, NM 88003 >
> > 505-646-2027 FAX 505-646-7725 >
> > e-mail sbernhar -at- nmsu -dot- edu >
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>