Meanderings while meandering....

I'm on vacation, well, sort of. Actually, I'm moving (yes, again, for those of you who know my history). One of the nice things about vacation is that it lets my brain think about things in different ways from while I am "working." So, I thought it might be interesting to capture some of those thoughts as I'm going through various phases of the moving process. I don't know if anyone else will find anything interesting in these thoughts, but that's a general risk with any blog. The people who packed up our household things were rather diverse, as were the men who loaded those things onto the truck. I have always been intrigued by how people from various cultures and different speaking skills are able to work together effectively. Certainly, as a "communicator" myself, this is an important skill. But, even before I was officially a writer, I was interested in this facet of human behavior. When you speak with another person, either in person or on the telephone, you are able to communicate certain things by tone, gesture, or other behavior, in addition to just words. The moving people certainly had this skill down to a fine art. There were times that little more than a small gesture was needed for one person to communicate to another what he (or she) needed the other person to do. Other times, one person who make a request, another person would not understand, and a third person would "translate" between the first two. In many ways, that is the job that the technical writer has -- to translate from "engineering-speak" to "user-speak." And, to do that effectively, we use more than just words - we use design, structure, pictures, and other devices. Enough for today. More to come.

Posted at 09:02PM May 08, 2007 by jcinfoblog in General  |  Comments[0]