{"id":5374,"date":"2016-12-20T15:45:20","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T20:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/?p=5374"},"modified":"2016-12-20T15:49:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T20:49:23","slug":"successful-cookie-baking-from-an-acknowledged-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/2016\/12\/20\/successful-cookie-baking-from-an-acknowledged-source\/","title":{"rendered":"Successful Cookie Baking \u2013 From Mom, an Acknowledged Expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

How is technical writing like cookie baking? Bart Leahy raises this holiday-time question on his Heroic Technical Writing blog<\/a> not so much in the interest of better cookies, but in reprising an oft-proven process for exemplary technical writing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>First, be sure you’ve consulted the experts in whatever process you’re recording. In Bart’s case, after he’d botched a couple of batches of cookies, they were his sister Colleen and, then, the source of the cookies he’d remembered so fondly, his mother. <\/p>\n

When Bart’s Mom asked about the results he was getting, he replied, “Well, the cookies aren’t very sweet and (they’re) a bit flour-y tasting. Maybe a little salty.” He described the procedure he was using to get so unsatisfactory a result. After his Mom asked a few clarifying questions (“We walked through my procedures…”), Bart got his answer \u2013 he wasn’t using enough sugar and salt wasn’t included in his Mother’s recipe.<\/p>\n

Yet Bart’s recipe had them both listed in the quantities he’d used. Clearly, it was mistaken. Bart had gone to an acknowledged expert, asked some clarifying questions and corrected a couple of details he’d gotten wrong.<\/p>\n

And so, we’ve reached the core of the technical writing process: Consultation with experts and diligence in recording accurately what’s been learned. It can then be confidently applied by it’s intended users (but none too confidently, until confirmed in a few early trials).<\/p>\n

When a technical writer gets to feeling expert himself or herself, that can be dangerous. A process doesn’t originate in the writer’s mind or keyboard, but in those who used it beforehand and smoothed it out for reliability on the scene. Being a good technical writer, as we’ve noted before, is much the same as being a good reporter. Or a good cookie baker, once you’ve gone back to the source of what you’ve been seeking to reproduce. \u2013 Doug Bedell <\/em> <\/p>\n

(Illustration: MidwestLiving.com)<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How is technical writing like cookie baking? Bart Leahy raises this holiday-time question on his Heroic Technical Writing blog not so much in the interest of better cookies, but in reprising an oft-proven process for exemplary technical writing. First, be sure you’ve consulted the experts in whatever process you’re recording. In Bart’s case, after he’d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-technology"],"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