Re: Creativity in Technical Communications

Subject: Re: Creativity in Technical Communications
From: "Tony G. Rocco" <trocco -at- NAVIS -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 12:38:52 -0800

Wayne Douglass said:

Creativity in technical writing, as in most other endeavors, is regarded with deep suspicion, especially in a corporate context. Like most formula writing, technical writing seldom departs from the tried and true. In fact, going against the grain is frequently undesirable; you don't want to distract the readers who rely on your text to repair complex pieces of equipment, for example.

Nonsense, Wayne, with all due respect. You're falling into the same trap that Rachel is by thinking of creativity in narrow terms. Yes, there is much that is done in tried and true fashion in technical writing and that requires no original thought, but that fact hardly means there are no opportunities to think of innovative ways to organize material or describe or illustrate a concept. You seem to think that just because you can't be Woody Allen or Ann Liebowitz in your computer manuals that you can't exercise any creative thought.

Shear nonsense, Wayne, with all due respect.

- tgr
______________________________________

I saw a subliminal advertising executive once, but only
for a second.

- anonymous
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