{"id":4485,"date":"2015-04-09T16:10:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T21:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/?p=4485"},"modified":"2015-04-10T08:34:48","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T13:34:48","slug":"technical-writings-for-real-steph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/2015\/04\/09\/technical-writings-for-real-steph\/","title":{"rendered":"Technical Writing’s For Real, Steph"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were browsing for an Insights post and came upon Technical Writing World<\/a>, an interesting-looking \u201csocial network for technical communicators\u201d. Yet, there it was, in the very latest post, by one Steph Hepner to Lia Pi, apparently a member of a college class somewhere:<\/p>\n

\u201cHi, this is my experience. I didn\u2019t watch my grammar or composition, so please don\u2019t think I\u2019m a bad tech writer \u2013 I was just lazy and in a hurry! You may contact me if you have any questions or I answered yours incorrectly\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"tw101\"<\/a>Well, thank you, Steph, for the antithesis of good technical writing. We learn sometimes, don\u2019t we, by going to extremes? Well. the extreme for good, orderly technical writing is 1) Being lazy, 2) Being in a hurry and 3) Leaving the reader guessing, puzzled or confused. <\/p>\n

You couldn\u2019t boil the craft down to a more succinct core than that.<\/p>\n

Maybe technical writing, though, doesn\u2019t belong on a gossipy, we\u2019d presume, social network like this one. Yet Technical Writing World appears to be devoted to the craft itself. Or, maybe we\u2019re missing the difference between conversation and a craft. To be kindly, we\u2019d allow that that\u2019s what occurred here. <\/p>\n

The trouble is that technical writing is pretty demanding, even in its \u201csocial mode\u201d. What if, under pressure, a technical writer should lapse into his or her social media guise? That wouldn\u2019t be good for him, her, the craft, or the enterprise involved, would it? Or is there a difference between the standing of the craft and given practitioners thereof? We\u2019d hope not.<\/p>\n

The heart of what we\u2019re trying to suggest is that good writing is a discipline, one that\u2019s practiced whenever fingers touch upon a keyboard. Suppose a concert pianist began doodling \u201cin public,\u201d which, after all, is what writing on a social network amounts to \u2013 conversing in written form in public. <\/p>\n

No, Steph, we don\u2019t think you\u2019re necessarily a bad technical writer, just a reckless one when it comes to communicating outside your cubicle. Or were you in yours when you wrote this post? If so, shame. You don\u2019t need to be stuffy, just careful, orderly and certainly not in a hurry. \u2013 Doug Bedell<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were browsing for an Insights post and came upon Technical Writing World, an interesting-looking \u201csocial network for technical communicators\u201d. Yet, there it was, in the very latest post, by one Steph Hepner to Lia Pi, apparently a member of a college class somewhere: \u201cHi, this is my experience. I didn\u2019t watch my grammar or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-the-writing-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t