Re: Anarchy in the USA!

["Michele Marques" <mmarques -at- cms400 -dot- com>]

Andrew Plato argued that standards and procedures have their 
place as tools, like hammers and screwdrivers, but that making 
someone follow standards and procedures will not make him 
creative. He also argued that time spent obsessing over standards 
and procedures is better spent acquiring information.

First of all, as an information addict, I completely agree with 
Andrew about the value of information. Back when I thought I would 
be a fiction writer, a writer leading a writing workshop advised us 
students not to become English majors (especially in places 
offering degrees in creative writing), but instead to study history, 
politics, or other areas about the subject matter that concerned us. 
I think the best thing I did for my technical writing was to not 
realize early on that a career in computers could mean full-time 
work as a writer - I studied programming, psychology and 
linguistics and worked as computer operator, programmer, 
helpdesk support, system administrator (briefly), trainer and 
webmaster. My background helps me understand both the 
programs and the users. I agree with Andrew that the knowledge I 
take to the task of writing documentation is more important to 
writing useful documents than my knowledge of comma usage and 
whether all my documents use the same shape of bullet in bullet-
lists.

On the other hand, given that I will churn out useful information, it is 
easier for the user to access this information when I apply 
consistent styles across related documents, especially in 
reference manuals. Most people are not trying to read references 
manuals as they might read a novel. I have had to rewrite technical 
writing that was written by an English professor who used typical 
novel/essay techniques to keep his prose interesting, such as 
varying the way similar concepts are expressed, instead of the 
consistent approach of reference manuals.

I know that my reader is usually trying to get the information as 
quickly as possible from the reference manual (or on-line help) and 
get back to work as quickly as possible. By keeping a consistent 
stylistic approach, he can quickly find the answer to his problem. 

But the key is just focussing on consistency. I do not sit around 
obsessing over styles. Once I make my decision as to how to 
emphasize fields, where in the field definition to place field size 
information, etc., I just keep using it. It doesn't really matter if field 
size is at the start or end, whether field names are bold, underline, 
or a different font family - as long as I keep using the same 
approach throughout the manuals.

The only time I have ever focussed on procedures was when I was 
assigned an assistant to do technical writing on a specific project, 
but who had neither subject matter expertise nor technical writing 
background/interests. By being explicit on every stage of 
instructions, I was able to get a document that could easily be 
edited - it had all the information I needed in the correct places. I 
was able to finish that document in a few hours. For the next 
document, I let her "just do it" (as Andrew might say). But she 
didn't have the experience to "just do it" in an appropriate manner 
and I spent almost as much time re-writing that document as I 
would have spent just writing it from scratch. 

Was I worried about stifling this person's creativity? No. She is very 
creative, but I was looking for a usable document. When working 
with someone with more subject-matter or writing experience, I 
don't dictate procedure (although I will dictate or edit for style), 
because I expect that an experienced person has already figured 
out how to "just do it" and get useful results - or that I can specify 
how the results differ from my expectations without having to 
specify a procedure. 

Of course, dictating a procedure did not result in an excellent 
document from the inexperienced person, but it did result in an 
adequate document that could easily be improved. 


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Michele Marques
Technical Writer, CMS Manufacturing Systems
mmarques -at- cms400 -dot- com        
905-477-4499 x280