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WK>>So, if we were to compile a set of rules which all good
WK>>technical communicators were to comply with, what would they be?
WK>I teach a class in tech. writing to engineers, and one of the things
WK>I stress to them is simplicity. While the concepts they are
WK>describing are certainly complicated, the sentence structure does not
WK>have to be convoluted and difficult to understand. "Write to your
WK>reader as if they were sitting across the desk from you."
One thing I would add to this: Make sure the user *needs* to know the
information. Engineers spend a lot of time developing nifty designs that
are invisible to the user. They want to tell everyone about this, but
the users generally don't care.
Barb
barb -dot- philbrick -at- pcohio -dot- com
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~ CMPQwk 1.4 #9107 ~ And God said: E = 2mv2 - Ze2/r ...and there *WAS* light!
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