TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Can I Have Your Opinions ... From:"John H. Olds" <JOlds -at- AOL -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 8 Nov 1994 21:53:16 -0500
The writer must do more then write to the lowest common denominator. The law
of efficiency comes into play, that is, crap in crap out. If a product is
not well conceived or designed then it is going to be difficult to write to
any audience let alone a diverse audience. The Technical Writer must help
ensure that the product they are trying to communicate to the customer is
properly developed. As part of the product development team we as writers
must feedback are concerns to engineering during the product development
phase. This ensures that they are developing a product that we can easily
comunicate. Remember if it is difficult to write about it probably is not a
customer friendly product. In addition, are concept of audience and
engineering's concept of the audience are not in sync. As Tech Writers, we
play a role in communicating the customer's needs back into the organization.
We have valuable customer knowledge, we must use it to the fullest.