{"id":174,"date":"2014-03-06T11:10:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T19:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torawriting.com\/sandbox\/?p=174"},"modified":"2014-11-22T02:26:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T10:26:11","slug":"the-culture-of-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torawriting.com\/sandbox\/the-culture-of-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Culture of Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_175\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-175\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-175\" alt=\"Do manuals read like this? Could be a culture clash. Image from Pixabay.com\" src=\"https:\/\/torawriting.com\/sandbox\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/instructions-76729-225x300.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/torawriting.com\/sandbox\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/instructions-76729-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/torawriting.com\/sandbox\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/instructions-76729-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/torawriting.com\/sandbox\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/instructions-76729.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-175\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Do manuals read like this? Could be a culture clash.<br \/>Image from Pixabay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Especially for larger software companies, documentation is something management easily outsources. The problem with outsourcing writing is that the culture of the writer and the culture of the reader frequently don\u2019t match.<\/p>\n<p>The truth of the matter is that most Americans only go to the documentation when they are stuck beyond all reason. At that point, all the reader wants to know is how to make the software do what it is \u201csupposed\u201d to do. (Yes, I do know that users frequently have no clue about what software can actually do.)<\/p>\n<p>As a Technical Writer, I spent over ten years creating documentation for engineering software applications. As someone self-taught in every application I have ever had the \u201cpleasure\u201d of working with, I wrote the documentation I wish someone had written for me. Meaning: I wrote <span style=\"color: #006633;\"><strong>clear instructions about how to make the software do specific things<\/strong><\/span>. I also wrote clear descriptions for why\/how the software does what it does.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s me: Passionate about Clear Communication.<\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"color: #006633;\">And the Culture Conflict Would Be?<\/span><\/h1>\n<p>In my experience, outsourced writing frequently goes to India, or some other heavily populated country. Cultures in countries that have a long history of large populations tend to be conflict adverse. This is perfectly reasonable to me, if there is nowhere else to go, it\u2019s best to keep everyone in the area happy.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #006633;\"><strong>Being conflict adverse impacts communications<\/strong><\/span>. Writings and conversations tend to be overly polite, flowery, and without a direct point. Everyone knows what\u2019s been said, but it takes many more words and sometimes internal decoding is necessary.<\/p>\n<p>For the American trying to figure out how to get the <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em><strong>bleeping<\/strong><\/em><\/span> spreadsheet to find the average of cells spread hither and yon, flowery language without a direct point is exactly the wrong thing.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, it is very likely that my style of writing \u2013 direct, to the point, and occasionally sassy \u2013 would offend large portions of the population of a conflict adverse culture. Heck, <span style=\"color: #006633;\"><strong>my unfiltered style<\/strong><\/span> of writing offends portions of my own culture.<\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #006633;\">The Lesson Learned<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<p>I used to grumble about documents written in India and make blanket statements like, \u201cthey can\u2019t write.\u201d But that is not the case. <span style=\"color: #006633;\"><strong>Writers in India write just fine \u2013 for their culture<\/strong>.<\/span> What they need extra training on is writing for the culture of their audience \u2013 generally impatient Americans who need to get this thing done yesterday and just want to know what to do.<\/p>\n<p>It was not until I actually worked for a company that did have writers in India (and programmers too), that I realized that there was not some plot out there to make documentation confusing. Instead, the plot is to make more money by getting documentation cheap and to heck with the reader.<\/p>\n<p>Sorry, is my last layoff showing?<\/p>\n<p>-Lorrie Nicoles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Especially for larger software companies, documentation is something management easily outsources. The problem with outsourcing writing is that the culture of the writer and the culture of the reader frequently don\u2019t match. The truth of the matter is that most Americans only go to the documentation when they are stuck beyond all reason. At that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,4],"tags":[13,51,52,50,54,55,53,6,49],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","category-writing","tag-clear-communication","tag-culture","tag-culture-conflict","tag-documentation","tag-software","tag-software-documentation","tag-technical-writer","tag-writing-2","tag-writing-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Culture of Writing - Tora Writing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/torawriting.com\/sandbox\/the-culture-of-writing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Culture of Writing - Tora Writing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Especially for larger software companies, documentation is something management easily outsources. 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