Comments on: Technical writing antipatterns http://juliemelton.com/2008/08/11/technical-writing-antipatterns/ Online home of Juliette Melton Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:42:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Rhonda http://juliemelton.com/2008/08/11/technical-writing-antipatterns/comment-page-1/#comment-497 Rhonda Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:29:38 +0000 http://juliemelton.com/2008/08/11/technical-writing-antipatterns/#comment-497 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! 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!

]]> By: kristin nienhuis http://juliemelton.com/2008/08/11/technical-writing-antipatterns/comment-page-1/#comment-496 kristin nienhuis Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:13:06 +0000 http://juliemelton.com/2008/08/11/technical-writing-antipatterns/#comment-496 can't decide if i am "glad" to see this page or if I could have happily "existed" without... :-) can’t decide if i am “glad” to see this page or if I could have happily “existed” without… :-)

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