atw: Re: Apart from using Word 2002, what else am I doing wrong?

<Grabs his two-handed battle axe and swings into the fray>

I refer back to a lengthy thread, both offlist and on, only a few months
past and still resting uneasily in its grave.

Whilst formulating long and careful responses, I discovered to much chagrin
that English's nuances hath uncharted the wide waters we sail, and thus
merely defining creativity did entail a vigorous discussion involving the
separation of two distincts. Our common lay, as we oft discuss, doth call
the mere act of production creativity as something is produced. To whit -
the art of defecation doth more than happily surmises its own fit to this.
Something is produced. Be it creative?

Nay. For technical writing lies in the land where rules and regulations
apply. Whilst there may be several applicable avenues for the words to
wander down, there are most certainly applications of rules to converge it
thusly with technical writing as the field of knowledge. Technical discourse
can easily be judged against metrics. Creative discourse... 

We apply skill, knowledge and ability. There are correct ways of doing
things, and incorrect ways of doing things. Your mode, tense, tone and
timbre is dictated unto you. When you write a procedure, it is done a
certain way. All we do is voice that. Creative content thusly declines to
the sum total of zero. Production high, creativity low. English falls
screaming in the gutter and is unsuitable for this discussion. What you
perceive as creativity, I perceive as style, a logical artifact of
existential production. This is not creativity, no matter what the lay
descry.

The main problem is the innate hybris most writers have expresses itself in
fierce denial of what we would rather be doing. Instead, we grind the
corporate wheel on a daily basis, and try most hard to talk to the inner
breast and declare, through lying, to our own most dear self that what we do
is creative.

When I design a page layout, am I being creative? Damn it man no! I am
applying every single rule of existentialistic design that I know. White
space, kerning, leading and spacing. Hyphenation, justification, separation
and gaps. Floating, embedding, boilerplate and standards. Rules. Rules. More
rules. Something pops out the other end, dependant entirely upon the
specifications, and not upon interpretation personal.

If one then wishes to take the poisonous end of the snake and declare, in
true pop art fashion, that anything that provokes discussion is art, then
again, as defecation is oft discussed twixt men and dogs alike, it be art
and creative as well.

If you stop talking shit, so will I :-)

Steve Hudson

Word Heretic, Sydney, Australia 
Tricky stuff with Word or words for you.
www.wordheretic.com
ABN: 86 453 419 554   
"Qualified Good Tech Writer Dude"
Free Association of Words
Without prejudice

  

-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Michael Lewis
Sent: Monday, 24 January 2005 1:24 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Apart from using Word 2002, what else am I doing wrong?

Steve Hudson:

> Now while you are all deciding what to call me, I will get back to my 
> WRITING. It is not creative writing, it is technical. I am not doing 
> technical illustrations, although my proficiency covers basic and 
> intermediate implementations of this. I would never apply for a 
> technical illustrator role, yet you suggest that they also be called 
> Technical Communicators.

All writing is (or can and should be) creative. What is commonly called
"creative writing" is really "imaginative writing". There's something of a
continuum between straight fiction, fiction in a historically accurate
setting, a fictionalised account of historical events, a historical
narrative, and a history text. All require creativity in one way or another
-- as does a good user manual.

The relationship between text and graphics is complex. The saying "A picture
is worth a thousand words" is only partly (and only sometimes) true --
sometimes we need a graphic to support or clarify text, but equally often we
need some extra text to support or clarify the graphic. The producer of the
text and the producer of the graphic are contributing jointly to the
communication process, but in my experience it's the person producing the
text who specifies what the graphic is to show. So the "writer" is primarily
responsible for the communication's success or failure.

And what is the "writer's" role in layout? Few "writers" are trained in
typography and layout, but most "writers" I know are keen to exercise
control over the final appearance of their work. Typography and layout are
equally critical to the success or failure of the communication.



Michael Lewis

--------------------------------------
Brandle Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia
www.brandle.com.au
--------------------------------------


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