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- Last Updated: 14 November 2013 14 November 2013
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The discipline of a profession (overview)
The discipline is the same for every profession: To consistently identify, specify, design and deliver the right product for the right price. What is different for every profession are the tools and techniques applied to each of those steps and how long it takes to acquire the starting point knowledge. For example, a doctor has to study longer than an accountant and the range of tools a doctor uses is much larger than an accountant. But for this overview, we will look only at the way the discipline of the profession applies to accountants, lawyers, doctors and technical communicators.
Consider the following table which summarises the activities for each step at the simplest level. (A document is any type of information product such as a printed document, a presentation, a film clip, a web page, a brochure, a manual and so on.)
Component | Accountant | Lawyer | Doctor | Technical Communicator |
Identify: | An accounting approach. |
A defence. | The disease. | The real customer and real purpose of the document. |
Specify: | The desired outcomes, interim stages, legal and other pract -ice require- ments. |
Defence strategy. |
Treatment (could be any combin- ation of drugs, physio- therapy, rad- iation and so on). |
Content of the document. |
Design: | Accounting changes, posting sequences, reports. |
Scope and structure of questions and argu- ments. |
Write referrals and scripts. |
Storyboard the content. |
Deliver: | Implement the accounting changes and postings. |
Defend case in court. |
Administer treatments - drugs, physio, radiation and so on. |
Write the document. |
Right product |
Solves the account- ing problem. |
Client- specific defence. |
Disease- specific treatment. |
Fit for Purpose document, chart presentation movie and so on. |
Right price |
Client can afford it. |
Client can afford it. |
Patient can afford it. |
Fits the budget. |
Separate articles will give more detail about how each step applies to Technical Communicators.
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