Pavel Lepin wrote:
> I wonder if there are any courses in language lawyering?

The best way to learn that skill, as far as I know, is to actually be 
involved in writing a specification of this sort. Writing a few patents 
also helps, but it's a slightly different set of issues.

The W3C specs in particular have two problems. One is that there's a 
"cultural" mandate that they be "prescriptive rather than descriptive" 
-- it's asserted that these specs are written for an expert reader, and 
that anyone who isn't an expert in this specific area will be reading 
tutorials and articles rather than the spec itself. The other is that 
while companies are willing to donate techical skills to the W3C (to 
make sure the spec says the right things), they are unfortunately much 
less willing to donate techical-writing skills (to make sure the spec is 
actually readable). The W3C does have a few real technical writers, but 
they're overloaded and usually can't get involved until very late in the 
process, which limits how much they can help.

-- 
Joe Kesselman / Beware the fury of a patient man. -- John Dryden