Re: Techwriter Aptitude Test (A Daydream)

[Wayne Douglass <wayned -at- VERITY -dot- COM>]

At 01:57 PM 11/7/97 +0100, Mike Dannenberg wrote:
>Here's the scenario:
>
>You're looking for a technical writer. You've invited ten people for an
>interview. You sit them down in a room and hand each of them a
>shrinkwrapped box with a little digital alarm clock or some such
>appliance. Everybody tears open the package. Nine people take out the
>clock, start randomly poking at buttons look for the battery
>compartment, after a while they get the thing to display the time, a few
>people get it to display the correct time.
>
>One guy first takes out the instruction leaflet and reads it. After a
>while he's able to set the time correctly, adjust for time zones, set
>the alarm and switch between 12 and 24 hour display. Congratulations.
>You've found your technical writer.
>
Given my experience with "documentation" that accompanies most digital
clocks, you're better off poking at buttons and seeing what happens. Many
years ago I became a hero for a little Italian boy who wanted to set a
digital watch he had received as a free gift in a box of detergent. Since
the document was in Italian, which I don't read or speak, I could do nothing
else but poke.

--Wayne
---------------------------------------------
Wayne Douglass        phone: 408-542-2139
Verity, Inc.            FAX: 408-542-2040
894 Ross Road        mailto:wayned -at- verity -dot- com
Sunnyvale, CA 94089    http://www.verity.com
    "Connecting People With Information"
---------------------------------------------


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