{"id":74,"date":"2004-11-16T07:24:00","date_gmt":"2004-11-16T07:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/?p=74"},"modified":"2004-11-16T07:24:00","modified_gmt":"2004-11-16T07:24:00","slug":"tech-writers-%e2%80%93-a-necessary-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2004\/11\/tech-writers-%e2%80%93-a-necessary-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech-writers \u2013 A Necessary Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n
In a world where accuracy is all important, a lot goes over the head of the dummy. I don’t know if it’s intellectual snobbery, but programmers and managers seem to think that if they understand it, so should the user. It doesn’t matter whether or not they do\u2026 they SHOULD! Stupid users! Maybe it’s the geek’s ultimate revenge\u2026 <\/p>\n

Your document can be 100% accurate, but if the audience can’t read it, you’ve wasted your time.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Excerpt from Glenn Murray’s article – Tech-writers \u2013 A Necessary Evil (via WebproNews)<\/a><\/p>\n

I told you! Didn’t I?<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/map>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a world where accuracy is all important, a lot goes over the head of the dummy. I don’t know if it’s intellectual snobbery, but programmers and managers seem to think that if they understand it, so should the user. It doesn’t matter whether or not they do\u2026 they SHOULD! Stupid users! Maybe it’s the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[195],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In a world where accuracy is all important, a lot goes over the head of the dummy. I don’t know if it’s intellectual snobbery, but programmers and managers seem to think that if they understand it, so should the user. It doesn’t matter whether or not they do\u2026 they SHOULD! Stupid users! Maybe it’s the…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gbk8-1c","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":59,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2004\/06\/new-resources-for-tech-writers-in-india\/","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":0},"title":"New resources for tech writers in India","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"June 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"People I have added a 'Classifieds' program to this site. It is in beta. I am just testing it. Give it a spin at Job Ads and also see The Job Forum. Tell me which one you like the best. If you have other ideas please let me know. Pass\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2004\/01\/47\/","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":1},"title":"Chennai Tech Writers Mixer on\u2026","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"January 16, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Chennai Tech Writers Mixer on Jan 25 : Calling all Tech Writers in Chennai for an informal Mixer on Jan 25th. It's a great opportunity to network with our fellow tech writers from different companies in Chennai. The Mixer aims to be a nice watering hole for chennai tech writers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/09\/tech-writer-or-dtp-expert\/","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":2},"title":"Tech writer or DTP Expert?","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"September 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I saw these requirements for a technical writer opening on one of those \u2018Urgent-wanted tech writers\u2019 mails:HTML programming, JavascriptMicrosoft Office suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), Microsoft FrontPageMacromedia DreamweaverMacromedia FlashAdobe Photoshop, Adobe ImageReady, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Acrobat, RoboHelpMicrosoft VisioI wonder why they left out C, C++, Java, and VisualBasic? Why, why? 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I responded and thought should blog it too - Suman Hi uma shankar, Sorry to tell you that there are no formal training institutes for tech writing in India\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/11\/44\/","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":4},"title":"How to become a technical\u2026","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"November 24, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"How to become a technical writer I got a few mails from aspiring tech writers asking how to be a technical writer. I'll assume that you guys are asking me 'how to get a technical writer's job'. Please note that the content below is inspired by what little I know;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/10-ways-to-please-us-the-customers\/","url_meta":{"origin":74,"position":5},"title":"10 Ways to Please Us, the Customers","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"November 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"NYT published this list. I thought the ones below might ring a bell to all you tech writers out there: II. Thou shalt hire native English speakers to translate thine instruction manual. \"When the camera focus is not so possible, hold the shutter button vaguely until the beeping tone is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}