Why IMS

Why is documentation important?

Poorly-written documentation lets a good product down.

Many otherwise excellent products never achieve the market acceptance they deserve because their product literature doesn't do them justice.

 

Many more, though good sellers, infuriate their purchasers because they come with poorly-written user manuals. This, in turn, places the manufacturer in a bad light.

Poor English creates a poor impression

There is a general consensus that standards of written English have declined in the last generation.

 

Poor construction, limited vocabulary, bad grammar, misspelling and incorrect punctuation are all commonplace.

 

These factors contribute to a lack of clarity when trying to expound the technical advantages of a product, but more importantly, immediately create a poor impression with the reader of both manufacturer and product.

Why should you use a technical author?

Good designers cannot automatically be expected to be good authors too.

Many manufacturers get their designers to write product copy for brochures, manuals, or even advertising, on the assumption that "they must know the product better than anyone, they designed it".

 

But most good designers are employed for just that reason - their technical knowhow - not their ability to compose clear and correct English. The combination of technical brilliance and a good writing technique is, sadly, not very common.

It permits an independent viewpoint of the product

During the R&D phase of a new product, it is all too easy for a clever and enthusiastic design team to get so involved with the intricacies of hardware and software that they lose sight of how the product is intended to be seen by the marketplace.

 

Product documentation is often garbled as a result. A fresh, outside overview can be very useful before the product is put into production, to re-establish the product's perception from the viewpoint of the market.

It lets you get on with more important tasks

Another reason good products often suffer from poor documentation is that it is - probably rightly - considered more important that technical staff concentrate on getting the product design right. This is what they are there for, after all.

 

Many products have substandard literature or manuals because writing them is not seen as the most interesting, or important part of the job, and they are often hurried or skimped as a result.

 

Employing professional Technical Authors will free the most valuable people on your staff to concentrate on what they are best at.