My life in technical communication would be much easier if we all subscribed to these rules:
- Go beyond the obvious.
- Ignorance is not an asset.
- People do judge a book by its cover. Don’t give them the opportunity to assume you’re a blithering idiot.
- Your content may be special, but it does not need special formatting. Follow the style guide.
- Act like a professional, not like the lead character in Semicolons and Subservience.
- Editors improve your writing and not your ego. Deal with it.
- The tools you learned five years ago are obsolete. Learn the new tools. Repeat every five years.
- Clear, concise writing never goes out of style.
Hear, hear! Great list, all true.
9. Your reader is more important than you are.
Edit to #7: strike last sentence and replace with “Continuously.”
10. Use the appropriate tool for the job, then use it appropriately.
A lot of common sense in these rules; thanks for posting.
[...] CyberText Newsletter The official newsletter/blog of CyberText Consulting – technical communication specialists « Talking head or live person? The technical communicator’s manifesto June 30, 2010 The delightful Sarah O’Keefe (the lady with all the chocolates at the Scriptorium booth at technical writing conferences) has put together The Tech Comm Manifesto: http://www.scriptorium.com/blog/2010/06/the-tech-comm-manifesto.html [...]
Why is list a numbered list?
That shoule be: Why is the list a numbered list? tee hee
@Wade I’m going with “For easy reference” because it sounds better than “because the number button was a few pixels closer than the bullet button”.