Re: Techwriter Aptitude Test (A Daydream)

[Martha J Davidson <editrix -at- SLIP -dot- NET>]

M. Dannenberg wrote:
>
>
> Well well. Another of my pathetic little illusions cruelly shattered.
>
> OK. Serious. Reading the docs is usually the first thing I do, and I
> think it has always helped me understand things faster than by just
> playing around. Even if the documentation is lousy, it usually provides
> at least some kind of useful information that would be very hard or even
> impossible to find out otherwise. Dear me, here I am justifying the
> value of reading documentation on the bloody techwriter list! Well,

Well, Mike, you're not alone in that.  It's how I approach things, too, and
I don't believe it makes me any less effective as a tech writer. I figure
if I don't read what's been written and then I get stuck, it's probably
because I missed something I wouldn't have if I'd only followed the
directions.

I'm not one who enjoys playing with something to find out how it works,
just for the fun of it.  I can certainly find my way through a new software
product and create effective documentation, but I always do better when I
can ask an engineer for a brief overview of how something is supposed to
work.  Especially stuff that they might expect to be totally intuitive;
lots of the time it isn't obvious to me how to start, but with a word of
explanation, I can run with it and then write what the next nervous
neophyte might need to hear in order not to be afraid to use something new.

martha

--
Martha Jane {Kolman | Davidson}
editrix -at- slip -dot- net / mjk -at- synon -dot- com
Senior Technical Writer

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
 If I am only for myself, what am I?
 If not now, when?"
        --Hillel, "Mishna, Sayings of the Fathers 1:13"

Posts: mailto:techwr-l -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu
Commands: mailto:listserv -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu (e.g. SIGNOFF TECHWR-L)
Archives: http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html,
	http://www.documentation.com/, or http://www.dejanews.com/
Subjects: JOB:, QUESTION:, SUMMARY:, ANNOUNCE:, or none of these.