The rights of the technical reader
At the Roald Dahl museum there is a poster on the wall entitled "The rights of the reader". It's a wonderful ten point manifesto drawn up by Daniel Pennac in his book of the same name.
Unfortunately, the poster appears to be no longer available for download from the Walker books Web site, but it is available elsewhere.
The rights include:
The right to skip
The right to read anywhere
The right not to finish
Would any of the rights differ for a technical reader?
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(Addendum)
Our thoughts were:
The right to read in a medium that suits me
The right to be listened to
The right to up to date information
The right to expect the information will be understandable
The right to be able to find the information I need
What would be the corresponding rights be for the technical writer?
Our thoughts were:
The right to be given enough time
The right to be given accurate information
The right to have correct tools for the job
Labels: technical authors, technical communication
posted by Ellis @ 3:08 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Good questions!
I agree with the poster. I think a reader has every right to get only what they need from a piece of writing and walk away from the rest if they want to - especially when it comes to technical writing!
For writers I guess it means taking out all the writing that isn't the story or message you mean to convey.
Another one: The right not to feel a failure if you need to look at the online Help
"The right to expect the information will be understandable." That's a contract between the reader and the writer. If I'm a new user, I don't have the right to pick up a document clearly identified as "for advanced users" and expect to understand it; and if I'm writing that Advanced Users guide, I don't have the duty to explain in detail all the concepts a new user won't yet have mastered.
Shades off into "expectation management", common sense and fair play ...
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