[Collins] Re: Differences Between the 51J and the R-388

[Gerald]

On Wed, 2005-08-10 at 20:00 -0700, Glen Zook wrote:
> In the late fall of 1967 or winter of 1968 management
> decided that all of the salaried employees at the
> "new" Collins Radio Company corporate headquarters in
> Richardson, Texas, needed to take a week long
> "effective writing course".  Basically this course was
> supposed to teach everyone how to write
> correspondence, manuals, etc., for varying educational
> levels.
> 
> For example, most newspapers are written for people
> with a 6th grade education.  Most general interest
> magazines are written for people with an 8th grade
> education.  Technical magazines are written for
> somewhere between an 8th grade and a 12th grade
> education depending on the subject.
> 
> What got management started was that someone took
> several of the manuals that the Collins Radio Company
> was providing to the military and "ran" the "tests"
> that supposedly showed what level of education was
> necessary to understand them.  At that time it was
> "assumed" that the "average" military technician had a
> 12th grade education or less.  Thus, the manuals
> should be written for about an 8th grade education
> "just to be sure".
> 
> However, when the "tests" were run on the manuals it
> was "discovered" that to really understand what was
> written that somewhere beyond 2 years post PhD was
> necessary!
> 
> I don't know if Art Collins personally decided that
> everyone needed to take the course or if it was
> someone else.  However, it definitely was something
> that Art would have come up with.  The course was
> interesting, at least to me.  I think that somewhere
> up in my attic that I still have the instructional
> material that was used in the course.  But, I sure
> wouldn't want to have to find it!
> 
> Glen, K9STH

Yup, the Art I knew would have done that ignoring the fact that the
manuals were mostly written by the tech writing department where DeVry
Tech was their alma mater. At least that was true for the tech writer I
bumped heads with. His manuals didn't make sense to me when I knew what
the equipment was and how it worked. They simply didn't explain the
circuit functions. They might trace a circuit 20 miles through the
transmitter without telling its proper function.

I didn't have a PhD then but I'd taken excess writing classes in high
school.

I don't know that totally dumbing down of manuals is a benefit,
somewhere technology is technical and too much dumbing down leads to the
illiterate manual not supplying the technical information the reader
needs to use or repair the equipment.

Once upon a time the FCC wanted to dumb down amateur radio rules. In the
process their simplified rules removed significant operating privileges
and technical capabilities. In my comments to the FCC (who didn't
implement the proposed simplified rules) I said, "Amateur radio IS
technical. Regulations need to be technical and to not prevent the
existing use of technology."
-- 
73, Jerry, K0CQ, Technical Advisor to the CRA
All content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer