Steve Arrants Article Review: When Documentation is an Afterthought

Welcome to episode 121 of the Technical Writing Success podcast from the Curt Robbins & Associates Technical Writing Agency.

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Today’s episode reviews an article from The Old Tech Writer (Steve Arrants) that is entitled "When the Docs Are an Afterthought" and was published on Medium on August 22, 2024.

Hosts Daphne and Fred share their spirited unpacking of this educational article from Arrants and his seven signs that you're working in an environment where documentation is an afterthought. These signs include a lack of standards, no collaboration, and no planning or project management.

Writes Arrants: " Documentation has changed since I started in the 1980s. From print to online to interactive aids, the delivery has changed, but the need hasn't. Good documentation is critical to make your product successful, no matter how intuitive and friendly the software, hardware, or service is.

"Working for a company that treats documentation as an integral, crucial part of the product is great. But I’ve also worked at big and small companies that treated documentation as an afterthought. How do you tell you're in that environment? Here are some signs."

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>> Read the original Arrants article: https://tinyurl.com/5n6ke5d6

>> Read the Curt Robbins article "Helping Junior Technical Writers": https://tinyurl.com/yc82h4j7

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>> Read the Robbins article "Tech Writers: Embrace Structured Content": https://tinyurl.com/32ysxm3v

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