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Subject:Technical Skills and Technical Writers From:"David Blyth @second" <dsb -at- ALSYS -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 11 May 1995 12:54:05 PDT
Hi All;
This is an old topic (it's been some time since I've read this group),
but I can only resist so much temptation.
Robert Plamondon says....
>Technical writers can write original manuals from scratch on any topic
>they understand.
So long as Robert means "GOOD original manuals from scratch", I agree.
I can write lousy manuals on anything.
In general, I DON'T understand the material when I first start writing.
>You have to have the same level of understanding that the user is
>supposed to have, once he's done reading your manual.
I disagree. You have to have _better_ understanding of a topic than
the user. If you had to have the _same_ level, then I would still
be a newbie once I finished writing a tutorial.
David (The Man) Blyth (dsb -at- thomsoft -dot- com)
Technical Writer
Thomson Software Products
My opinions are not necessarily those of my employer (but they should be).
