Technical writing antipatterns
I grabbed this screenshot from an amusingly unhelpful page of help documentation.
can’t decide if i am “glad” to see this page or if I could have happily “existed” without… 
A weblog by Juliette Melton
A weblog by Juliette Melton
I grabbed this screenshot from an amusingly unhelpful page of help documentation.
8.12.08 / 9am
can’t decide if i am “glad” to see this page or if I could have happily “existed” without…
8.12.08 / 6pm
Looks like someone was writing for an ex-boss of mine! His ‘metric’ for my ‘worth’ as a technical writer from one release to the next was how many more pages were in Release 4, compared to Release 3.
*My* metric for the same documentation was how many LESS pages there were. Fewer pages meant any or all of these:
* tighter writing and editing
* removal of topics no-one cared about or wanted, or that were repetitive of other topics (e.g. an ‘add widget’ and an ‘edit widget’ topic were often very similar and could be combined)
* more usable software that didn’t require a 400 page manual to use it!
BTW, I no longer work for that company—and nor does he!
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