atw: Re: Groktalks for tech writers
- From: Craig Hadden <craig_john_hadden@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: atw <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 14:56:34 +1000 (EST)
Stuart,
What a powerful "Snakes and Ladders" analogy -- a
presentation gives the audience 'ladders' rather than
making them rush through numerous squares. (Ideally,
_all_ presentations should consist of 'ladders', but
unfortunately they don't -- which is why
micro-presentations came about of course.)
(On second thoughts, maybe all _documentation_ should
consist solely of providing 'ladders'!)
SB> [differences in terminology] don't need to be...
SB> explained, only noted
Very true.
SB> A cheat sheet or page of notes would handle these
SB> better and wouldn't soak up any face-to-face time.
Yes, it would be good to prime the audience beforehand
about differences in terminology. Trusting that the
audience had actually _read_ the cheat sheet seems
rash, though, so I think the presenter should still
mention the differences!
I wrote:
ch> Far too hard [to cover unfamiliar concepts] in
ch> 10 minutes
Stuart again:
SB> There must be some key "what" and "why" concepts
SB> ...so that they only have to go to the user guide
SB> for the "how".
I think you're right, and I went too far. Master pages
and similar topics should be fine.
What I was driving at was that _complex_ topics
(relative to the audience's ability -- a subjective
judgement of course) are not suited to 10-minute
presentations (or perhaps longer ones either). Complex
topics (eg JavaScript for non-programmers) require
practice, and witnessing a presentation about them
might actually just turn the audience off -- "This is
too hard!". With such topics, dozens of little baby
steps are required, perhaps including presentations on
specific aspects, some reading, doing exercises, and
particularly asking questions.
That reminds me -- I wonder how questions fit into a
10-minute presentation? Hopefully additional time
would be allotted!
My 2c worth (again),
Craig
===== My e-mail address is:
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