Technical Communication & Design

It sounds to me suspiciously like those folks who told me that if I made errors using the Unix computer system, why then I had no business using it. Clearly those who are incompetent to use something or to understand a text have no business trying to do so. Isn't this a great defense? You can cover up any kind of inelegant design or writing this way. Wonderful.

but the real test of the power of the idea ? and of the thinker ? is the ability to translate it into terms that the rest of us can understand

Consider the effect of age on intellectual ability. Young scientists find that human intellectual abilities decline with age, starting in the late twenties or thirties. However, older scientists doing the same kind of research show that intellectual ability does not decline with age, at least not after you exclude the effects of illness, "cohort" effects, and other technical complexities. Sure, physical and sensory abilities decline ? physical strength, vision, hearing, speed of response ? but certainly not intellectual ability. In fact, older scientists point out, knowledge, or what is called "crystal intelligence," is not only unimpaired, it improves with age.

The same points hold today, even though the technology of writing has advanced to the point where the hard work is the mental creation and refinement of one's thoughts into a form the reader can understand instead of the physical act of writing. It is easier for writers to let all their thoughts spill out on the page as they occur to them than to do the hard, time-consuming work to make those thoughts clear and easy for readers.

I think you have to be a writer yourself to know how hard it is to make something easy to read -- or else you just have to be a little smart.

The flaw in the argument, of course, is that why should anyone bother? How will they even know that something worthwhile is in there if it cannot be understood? Sure the work got published, and sure, my friend got promoted, but did anyone read the papers? Did his work have any impact? That is where readability matters.

The harder the author works, the easier for the reader. Hasty, inconsiderate authors create hours of effort for the reader. Careful, conscientious writers simplify the task for readers, but at the cost of great time and effort for themselves. Whose time is to be worth more: one writer or many readers?

t, opposing ideas are considered very important, because each scientific paper must carefully listen to the opposing voices and try to explain why they are either mistaken or why they perhaps do not apply in this particular case

It is through studies of the citation index that we know that interesting statistic: an amazingly large number of scientific papers never receive even a single citation.

these activities are presumably done for the benefit of others, so shouldn't the needs and abilities of those others be considered? A good writer and a good designer share many things in common. They need to understand the needs and abilities of their audience, and they must consider just how the product will be used.

Obviously the notion of trying out the material on the intended audience is not popular among designers and writers of instruction manuals,

Writers need editors and test readers to serve this role. Designers need the equivalent.