FWD: RE: Appealing to or introducing Tech Comm "best practices"

[Anonymous Poster <anonfwd -at- raycomm -dot- com>]

Techwr-lers,

Thanks for all the interesting and helpful responses to my original post 
about appealing to tech writing standards or best practices when working 
with colleagues who aren't familiar with them. That post was vague, so I'd 
like to try to clarify my situation and then make further comment.

First, about my situation. I actually was hired to this new position
because the manager of QA and Documentation thought my portfolio showed I could
help bring about improvements in the company's documentation. That is all very 
well, but how to go about it? Obviously, the situation calls for
diplomacy, especially toward the other tech writer. Fortunately, my new colleague and
I get along very well personally, and there is no personality conflict, as
one poster wondered. But I've been asked to get to it right away; there isn't 
much opportunity to persuade by example, although I agree that would be a 
great approach. For those who've cautioned me not to assume all my ways
are right and that my colleague can't possibly have any good ideas, I agree
and am doing my best to keep my mind wide open and to look for
opportunities
to learn and to compromise.

Now, for further comment. Maggie Secara says "citing Authority" may not be
a very persuasive argument. And Eric Ray points out that "just because it's
in a book doesn't mean it's right, just because it's published doesn't mean 
it's right, and just because it's conventional wisdom doesn't mean it's 
right" and that too few of the standards or best practices we rely on are 
actually "proven" by empirical studies. I agree with both Maggie and Eric. 
Standards are merely standards; they are not statistics and even empirical 
studies must be interpreted for application to particular contexts.

However, some of the principles that could be considered standard do have 
some basis in empirical studies. Aren't there studies that show that text
in all uppercase is harder to read than text with a mixture of upper and 
lowercase? (Nod to Tom Murrell.) I believe I could also find studies that 
suggest that online help windows with black text on a white background are 
easier to read than those with white text on a light blue background.

In cases like these and in cases where the standard is less definitive, I 
think discussing the issue in terms of some published work can be more 
constructive than discussing it in terms of "my way is better." If my 
co-worker and I disagreed on what background color to use in online help 
windows, my first reaction would be to pull out Horton's _Designing and 
Writing Online Documentation_ to see what he has to say and to check out
his bibliography for any existing empirical studies. Bringing this respected, 
outside voice can help our discussion be less subjective and personal.

But what if my colleague isn't interested in reading, either the sources I 
can supply or ones s/he finds? My experience suggests that, when this is
the case, the discussion is basically over, and the person with the most power 
wins. (Nod to Andrew Plato.) I don't like power games, winning or losing 
them. What I *do* enjoy is a lively discussion of whatever standard, best 
practice, or guru advice seems relevant to the issue at hand. So, in 
response to Nora Merhar's comment and question, "When I was working with a 
team of writers, we worked to a template and discussed/voted on each
change. It was a seriously irritating process, but at least everyone got to have 
input. Is that the kind of thing you want to do?" Yes!

My original post was about how to encourage my colleague to get interested 
in reading whatever the going word about a given technical communication 
issue is, so we can discuss and decide. Of course, I believe that if my 
colleague becomes familiar with the available resources, she might change 
her mind and agree with me on some issues. But I wouldn't mind if she read 
them and still disagreed. Geoff Hart's advice on how to encourage learning 
in "students" addresses this concern directly, and it seems like good
advice to me.

Thanks again for all the responses. I've enjoyed reading them and have 
benefited from each, cited and uncited.



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