Re: Pros and Cons of including writer's name

[Robin McCloud <RMcCloud -at- TFMG -dot- COM>]

> am interested in finding out how many technical writers have their name
included as author of the manual or document that they write....<

When I worked for the Mission Operations Directorate at NASA-JSC in Houston,
it was a requirement in the Training Division to list the subject matter
experts, division head, instructional designer, writer, editor, graphic
artist, and word processor in the front matter of Shuttle/Space Station
training manuals. We also had a sign-off page for the branch and division
chiefs, and the astronaut office. This practice was basically for
accountability/configuration management purposes. If any changes were
required in the future, the same people were usually assigned to the manual
for revisions and review.

Each person on the team was treated with the utmost respect, and
documentation was considered a priority. Those on the team actually made
time to create it, and we actually had schedules we could keep. I was
trained very well and, in retrospect, was quite spoiled. Those were my salad
days! :-) Since I meandered into the telecommunication and the software
fields, I find this type of attitude is the exception and not the rule.

Robin Mc2 (McCloud McDonald)
Sr. Technical Communicator
Information Development
The FAST Management Group, Inc.
Redmond WA
 <http://www.tfmg.com> www.tfmg.com