Expertise and Writing

For the purposes of this post, I'll clear the air first: The attitude of ordinary people towards expertise should be neither unquestioning acceptance of whatever an expert says, nor an equally naive suspicion of anyone regarded as an expert.

This should be obvious, but the promotion of these attitudes -- the former usually by leftists and the latter usually by populists -- makes it necessary.

With that out of the way, I am impressed by oncologist Peter C. Everett's succinct post titled, "On Professional Expertise," especially the following passage:

When I was in software, I learned a motto, "When a vendor wants to punish a customer they deliver exactly what they asked for."

Now that I am a consultant on hematology and oncology cases, and training future consultants, I tell the residents and fellows, "Your job is not to answer their question. Your job is to answer the questions they should have asked."

Both sides of that coin remind me of a joke I once heard about a carpenter whose customer objected that all he did was hammer in a nail. He replied: But the fee is for knowing where to hammer it in.

Everett elaborates a short bit on the above, but those two short paragraphs are memorable enough that I think they also make great writing advice. Know what you're talking about (and consult experts if necessary), and consider what your audience might not know to ask throughout the writing process.

-- CAV