Re: Book recommendation: Karen Schriver

[Carl Stieren <STIEREN -at- SIMWARE -dot- COM>]

(The original post by Debbie Pesach was on July 31, but I just got back from
holidays and I'm catching up with a month's TECHWR-L summaries.)

Dear Debbie and other TECHWR-Lers:

I heartily recommend Dynamics in Document Design for a vast, deep look at
documentation from the early 20th Century to the 1970s/80s. It is an
excellent book, well designed, congisant of culture, politics, trends and
the entire context in which document design fits. Buy this book if you want
to know more than the mere "how-to" of the current phase of documentation.

The only thing I really wanted, which Karen did not include, was a section
on the current era in documentation, one I would call "minimalism plus", the
current form of documentation, which I believe is Web-influenced, short on
text, high on bullet points, procedure lists, concept topics,
user-involvement, and often including tutorial in the text.

I hadn't had the courage to pose this question to Karen directly, but your
post, asking whether anyone recommended this book, smoked me out. I will
also ask Karen whether she believes this is the current stage.

 - Carl Stieren
Senior Information Developer
Simware, Inc.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

// The opinions expressed herein are mine and not those of Simware, Inc. //

 ------ ORIGINAL POST FOLLOWS -----

>Date:    Fri, 31 Jul 1998 13:06:39 +0300
>From:    KIBBUTZ HANNATON <hannaton -at- ACTCOM -dot- CO -dot- IL>
>Subject: Book recommendation: Karen Schriver
>
>I have a chance to buy a copy of "Dynamics in Document Design : Creating
>Texts for Readers" by Karen A. Schriver.
>
>I would appreciate some advice here. Does anyone have any comments about
>this book? Would you recommend it?  Why and why not?
>
>Please reply directly to me to save cyberspace. ;~)
>
>Debbie Pesach
>Kibbutz Hannaton
>hannaton -at- actcom -dot- co -dot- il


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