re: How I expanded my concept of the technical editing role

Tom Johnson — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:23:24 GMT

Harry,

Interesting post. I never thought about having a personal brand as a technical writer. I can see that you've reflected a lot about this. Lately I've been looking for a more defined purpose with my blog and podcast. Maybe it's a brand that I'm looking for.

Of course I agree that effective communication -- delivering information in a way the reader completely and quickly understands -- is a key part of technical communication. While I agree with that principle, my own personal brand or philosophy is a little different. Haven't figured that out yet.

Tom

re: How I expanded my concept of the technical editing role

John — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:22:36 GMT

i think writers and editors must understand the scarcity of reader time and effort, but i think that's always been true. recently i finished some work that came out pretty good. i leveraged hyperlinks to shoot off from the core story into deeper topics. is it a guidance win? not really sure. i'm somewhat reluctant to put my work against memes and popular culture, as our audiences differ. i'm also not sure what the difference between "gets it" and "really gets it" is. i guess i embrace the notion of great discoverability and structure, and appropriate depth, but what's new about this notion?

the docs for postgresql are excellent. whatever technique used to produce them = victory.