I wanted to underscore much of what Michelle says in her
clear and
interesting post. I also worked as a technical communicator
in the
late 80s/early 90s, which led "naturally" into UI
design and IA work
as well as requirements, project management, etc. From my
experience
the "documentation" perspective can really help. I
used to think of
this as looking at a system from a "narrative"
point of view -- what
is being presented to the user, what sense can they make of
it, what
breaks the meaning, what could help if it were changed. It's
a unique
way of looking that other specialties don't necessarily
have. It is
also very true (as the original post says) that tech writers
"love
saving themselves work" -- it is much better to change
the system than
write 150 pages of convoluted description of a bad
interface.
Having said that, many tech writers do not see their work in
this way.
That is, they don't take any part in design, even when they
could.
Rather they take the "output" of what developers
or others produce and
see their job just as explaining it. This used to drive me
crazy when
I worked in the field.
Al
> From: Michelle Corbin <corbinm us.ibm.com>
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Writing vs. Documentation
> Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 07:37:42 -0500
> As a technical communicator, I feel compelled to offer
up some commentary
> to this thread. 
>
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