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mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com on 07/31/98 03:53:11 PM
Please respond to mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com
To: TECHWR-L -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu
cc: (bcc: Michael Collier/FSG/CSC)
Subject: Re: Concurrent writing and revision
Mark Baker (mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com) asks:
<consider the achievement of the newspaper industry. They have a product with>
<a market window of, at best, 24 hours, and they successfully create a new?>
<product every 24 hours to maintain their market position. If journalists can>
<do it, why can't technical communicators?>
For one thing, the written content is the product produced by a newspaper team,
which is largely composed of communications professionals. Journalists don't have
to wait for the software developers or anyone else to release a product or approve
what goes out the door.
In software development, where software is the product, not the documentation, the
writing depends on the finalization of the product. If technical communicators
were in control of the product, and I'm not sure they should be, things would be
different--but only if the end product is documentation.
