Awesome Naomi - this must be the best advice I have ever had, and the easiest to remember! Many thanks to everyone for replying My (rather red-faced) reason for asking - I have been out of the loop so to speak with both serious technical writing and business analysis for over a year now. I am starting to take on the role again and I wanted to brush up on a couple of things, and this was one of them. The info you have given me will, no doubt, also aid 'newbie' austechies that are out there on the list(who are often 'lurkers') as well! Cheers Debbie -----Original Message----- From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Naomi Kramer Sent: Thursday, 13 October 2005 3:14 PM To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: atw: Re: Extracting technical information from SMEs Massages. Gets rid of some of the tension and, if you know pressure points, you can temporarily disable the distrust and resentment parts of their brain. Has been known to turn people positively loquacious. ;-) - Naomi > Hi all > Elementary question I know - but would still like to quiz the list...... > > Am looking for latest hints, tips, and advice on how to approach, > glean and drain the brains (!) of SME / highly technical and sometimes > (!) reticent folks. > > Thanks in advance > Debbie ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ************************************************** ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************