This hand slap to the head once again brought to you by Technical Writers. Someone with the title Technical Author (cue eye roll) posted a one sentence question to a Help-authoring tool list. To quote: “Can anyone tell me what ‘structured authoring’ is?”. This was met by links to a Google-searched PDF. The person read about, oh, 7 words, then skimmed and then came back to the list with (paraphrasing) “So, it’s using templates?”.
Cue hand to forehead.
Ok, this message is for all you Technical Authors, Content Developers, User Assistance Engineers, and plain ole’ Technical Writers. (The rest of you can leave if you want.)
You. Are. Not. Helping. In the immortal words of Jon Stewart, “Just stop.” If the following phrases don’t mean anything to you, start polishing your resume:
- Content Management
- Information Architecture
- Metadata
- Business Objects
- Format separated from Content
- Assembling documentation (and not in a binder)
And I swear to God if any one of you mentions that XML will solve your documentation issues (such as short timelines and content management) and you don’t have the first clue about how to accomplish those goals in the absence of a consultant, I’m going to really lose it.
I appreciate the communities that exist out there for authors, I really do. There are some really good ones. But, and I mean this in the most abrasive way you can imagine, some of the people that come there are so damn clueless, there needs to be an official person who virtually (or literally) clubs them over the head when they ask dumb questions. Google is your friend. If that doesn’t work, at least think about what you’re going to ask. No one hands you information anymore, and as a documentation person, you should know that first hand.
After that, post away but at least put something there for people to react to. Don’t come like a child with your hand out asking for an M&M; put some damned effort into it. I know you’ve had that job for like 20 years and don’t want to change, but too bad. I wrote for less than 5 years and I had to change more than once; it’s the new way of the world.
Actually, it’s not, it’s the way business has been for a very long time, you just haven’t had to work in a business environment because you’ve been treated like a cost, a necessary cost of doing business. It is in the interest of anyone who wants to keep writing to make themselves valuable. If you don’t, you’ll find out quickly what happens if you aren’t.