atw: Re: Statistics to demonstrate value ...
- From: Janice Gelb <Janice.Gelb@xxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:43:57 +1100
On 19/10/09 01:27 PM, Christine Kent wrote:
I started following the KISS approach when I realised that no-one but a tech
writer gives a pinch of putrescible matter what the document looks like as
long as it is readable and serves its purpose. It can use ugly fonts, ugly
layout, 27 different bullet styles, 38 different margin indentations, spaces
to force layout changes, faulty headers and footers, blah blah blah, and
no-one but us even sees the mess, let alone cares.
To me this is the simple truth, so it doesn't really matter how much value
we add or think we add, and it doesn't matter how much it &!$$@$ me off.
"They" don't think we add value, and they get what they pay (or don't pay)
for.
Glad you noted that this is the simple truth *to you*. To me,
the simple truth is that while readers will indeed put up with ugly,
badly formatted, and inconsistent documents, they would prefer
nicely formatted, and consistent documents. And while they will
still read documents from other departments that are ugly, badly
formatted, and inconsistent, they're a lot more likely to read a
nicely formatted and consistent document all the way through,
comment on it if that's the request, and think better of the
professionalism of the person and department that produced it.
-- Janice
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Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
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