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.
Related posts:
About the Author
9 Comments on “The Tech Comm Manifesto”
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.
Pingback: The technical communicator’s manifesto « CyberText Newsletter
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”.