I continue a few thoughts here from my last post where I talked about how my generation moved from handwriting to typewriting to the world of word processors and beyond.

I can’t help but think it ironic that in the time when we wrote letters and some of us perhaps wrote diaries, there really was so much to write. And we actually wrote! I’m not sure how things run in schools and colleges these days, but being from the Humanities stream, I remember writing reference notes for hours sitting in the college library. I do not remember what exactly I wrote in those 3-hour long exams – but I know my answer sheet booklet was full. Now, I doubt I can write one paragraph without making a mistake. What’s worse, I’m sure I will miss the keyboard after I’ve jotted the first sentence.  

I did not spend much time in the typewriting phase – just that bit that was necessary to write (type) for the typewriting exam. I went on to build my career in technical writing. That involves a whole lot of word processors and other content writing and content management software. But that I do for a living. My letter writing has died down completely. The last diary I maintained was perhaps 15 years back. I’m still in touch with friends and family the world over, but that communication too has graduated from snail mail, to email, to IM (Instant Messaging), to poking, to messaging on WhatsApp.

Isn’t it strange that we have tools that help us write quickly, easily and more accurately (thanks to Spell check and Grammar check) but our abilities to actually write have diminished significantly? We rely on all sorts of short forms and emoticons. Right from GM, LOL, FYI, BRB, and BFN to a host of emoticons, we seem to be challenged when it comes to expressing ourselves using words, sentences, paragraphs. Those absolutely adorable emoticons/emojis are so handy, why not use them and appear peppy? Appear young and happening?

It took us thousands of years to develop a language and write and express in it, write remarkable prose and poetry in it, and now all we can do is send grins and smileys? Are we moving at a rapid pace towards the Stone Age? Is this what is meant when people say that all things are cyclical? I mean what’s the difference between a Stone Age drawing in a cave and our emoticons (except that ours are on smart phones and other devices)? It does not seem very smart to me to be losing track and sense of language like this.

BRB with a new post soon. BFN :)

Recently, a group of us who had worked on a publication project, had the good fortune to visit one of India’s largest presses, Thomson Press. It is located at Faridabad, with an office in Okhla, Delhi.

This press is more of a plant than a printing press, with 2000 employees. Projects of immense scale are executed here, with the average quantity of any print job being at least a few lakh copies. Dictionaries, bestsellers, and textbooks are churned out. When you enter the press, you sit in a pleasant reception area for a bit, and you have no clue to the vastness within. Someone appears, and takes you through a small, average-looking door. Then you suddenly pass into a warehouse-like space so large, that you can’t see the end of it. The deafening roar of offset machines chugging away fills your ears. It’s as if you’ve vanished down the rabbit hole with Alice, and you’re now in printing Wonderland.

The printing area houses offset machines, as large as railway engines. You can climb onto them and watch the plates hitting the paper at incredible speed. A few machines are in between print jobs and rest peacefully, or are being cleaned by technicians. A large LCD screen shows the complex timetable of worker shifts. Piles of paper waist-high are being transported here and there. One can hardly speak over the din. The binding section is as large as the printing one, and houses machines that bind books. Books without their covers move along a long conveyer belt. From another area, their covers are traveling in a line. The machine applies a lick of glue on the covers and sticks the books into the spine in hypnotic repetition.

The Gauss web offset machine is a marvel of modern technology. It’s as large as a house and sits in a glass room of its own. A large digital console controls it from the outside. A roll of paper, around four feet in diameter is fed into the machine at one end. At the other end, a complete, bound and laminated magazine pops out. This machine has traveled to India from Germany, and with it came approximately thirty German technicians, who lived at the press for six months, training the Indian technicians to use it.

Germany is the birthplace of printing. Johannes Gutenberg was born there, and some of the finest offset machines still come from Heidelberg. These beasts of metal are strong workhorses. They strike wonder and joy into your heart as they spill out a million copies of books or magazines.

The most heart-stopping part of any project is when it goes to press. It’s a strange mix of excitement, exhilaration, sleeplessness, and stress. Printing is the make-or-break step. One annoying little mistake can stare at you from thousands of copies for the rest of your life. India has 33 million gods, or so they say. I like to think there is one tiny god, (worshipped by designers/editors) who sits up there, watching over the well-being of the world of print.

Many thanks to Vinu Chaitanya for the photographs.

Now that I’m done with the not-so-pleasant task of recounting the not-so-complimentary comments about technical writers, I have a more pleasant task at hand. Here are the compliments we got, technical writers, so hold your head and chin up.

• Product documentation is the face of any organization and there is no scope for error in terms of the quality of the documentation. (That is so true. In fact, just imagine a Log in screen or a Registration screen of a product that has typos or incorrect grammar – would you ever go back to it? A technical writer has a role to play from that first moment that a user interacts with a product. You will agree, it is a huge responsibility.)
  

• If the developer has coded his bit and the QA engineer has tested his bit then the product should work like magic. No? Actually, no. (Thanks for bringing our role into focus with those thoughts. I do like to think of technical writers and user experience (Ux) folks as contributing to more than just the feel good factors of a product. I see our roles as key to making a product work, appeal to common sense, and meet standards of user experience – all in one go.) 
  
• Very few people understand the unique contribution that technical communicators make – they need to understand the product (by talking to the Product Manager, the Developer, and the QA Engineer), test the product, and then convey their understanding to the user in the best possible manner. (Thanks for saying that in as many words. May I add, we need to convey our understanding with as few words as possible too, especially when it comes to language on the user interface?)
  
• Technical writers and usability folks are the invisible glue that keeps everything together. (Wow! Thanks for that image. I never did think of our role on those lines. You give me more than hope – you empower me.) 
  
• Quite a few technical writers are out of touch with technology and this is endearing, it makes us techies feel humane. (Have you ever felt so sheepish and so embarrassed that you wished the earth should swallow you up? I feel like that right now.)
  
• Most technical writers are passionate about something – reading, travel, music, movies, theatre, rock climbing, sports, blogging, baking cakes. It’s nice to be in the company of passionate people. (Can’t stop grinning with pride.)
  
• Technical communicators provide the much needed humane connection to product experience (I’m not sure what exactly that means, but it sounds like a compliment to me, and hence figures in this list.)  
  
• Usually you are an all-girls team. (Good God! I can’t believe that I’m actually putting that down here. I’m just being fair to all of you who responded, you know.)
  
• Technical writers are thorough professionals and are the easiest group to work with. They are clear about what they can deliver and by when, they are equally clear about what they can’t deliver by a certain time and why. They don’t miss deadlines and don’t impose themselves on others. (You just made my day!)
  

There you go, technical writer, tell me this post made your day too!