RE: A Question for Newbies and Intermediate Writers

[Anthony Viviano <AViviano -at- CreativeSolutions -dot- com>]

I've been working as Tech Writer for about six months now. Coming straight
from college, I had an excellent foundation in theory. I learned to write,
to organize info, etc... My greatest weakness was, and still is to some
extent, my knowledge of tools. My advice is to give your new writer time to
learn the tools. Chances are, s/he doesn't have much experience in that way.

Just my two cents..

Tony Viviano
Creative Solutions

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Sheldon Kohn [mailto:Sheldon -dot- Kohn -at- onlineinsight -dot- com]
		Sent:	Wednesday, April 19, 2000 9:57 AM
		To:	TECHWR-L
		Subject:	A Question for Newbies and Intermediate
Writers

		Hello All,

		I am asking for advice and perspectives based on your
experience when you
		entered the tech comms field. I am working in an Internet
start-up, and we
		will be adding many new developers over the summer.
Management accepted my
		proposal that we hire a new technical writer now and spend
some up-front
		time getting this person up to speed. After a comprehensive
search, we made
		an offer and received an acceptance from an entry-level
person.

		I have identified some tasks that our new writer can perform
immediately to
		start being productive. As I work on developing a schedule
for getting the
		writer fully functional as quickly as possible, I find
myself wondering what
		types of activities, projects, and assignments are most
useful. 

		My question to those of you who are relatively new to the
field is, what was
		most helpful in the first weeks and months of your
professional life? I do
		not want (or need) to take a "sink or swim" approach, so I
want to make sure
		that we use our limited ramp-up time wisely.

		TIA for any and all responses.

		Sincerely yours,

		Sheldon Kohn
		Online Insight, Inc.











		^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
		Sponsored by Weisner Associates Inc., Online Information
Services
		Training & consulting for RoboHELP, Dreamweaver, HTML, and
HTML-Based Help.
		More info at http://www.weisner.com/train/ or
mailto:training -at- weisner -dot- com -dot- 

		Sponsored by 4Translation.com, Language Translation
Simplified. 
		Instant on line quotations and free samples available for
technical
		documentation. http://www.4translation.com  Any File...Any
Language...Anytime

		---
		You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
AViviano -at- CreativeSolutions -dot- com
		To unsubscribe send a blank email to
leave-techwr-l-31416V -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
		Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
		http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and
info.