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Subject:Re: From Tech Trainer to Tech Writer From:Janet Myers <myers032 -at- tc -dot- umn -dot- edu> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 14 Dec 2000 08:01:56 -0600
mea culpa...I didn't include the whole copyright attribution:
The item in my previous message is reprinted with permission from the
Dec. 12 issue of Online Learning News, Bill Communications, 50 South
Ninth St., Minneapolis,
MN 55402. All rights reserved.
Janet Myers
myers032 -at- tc -dot- umn -dot- edu
> 3. FROM TECH TRAINER TO TECH WRITER
> How do you make the leap from technical trainer to technical writer?
> What skills do you need? Where do you get them? Here's one response to
> that reader question:
> Saul Carliner ( saulcarliner -at- worldnet -dot- att -dot- net ), whose teaching
> assignments include tech-writing classes, suggests shoring up writing
> skills with a tech-writing course.
>
> Or take an editing course -- the alternative that "helped me the
most,"
> says Carliner, who teaches communication design at Bentley College in
> Wellesley, Mass.
> More from Carliner:
> o For developing online help, take a course in user assistance or
> computer documentation. Learn RoboHelp -- the most widely used tool in
> the field, says Carliner.
> o To develop user interfaces, consider courses in information design,
> computer-human interaction and usability. "Some of these courses are
> taught in graphic design, not tech writing, programs," Carliner notes.
> o To build visual-communication skills, take a course in graphic
design
> or visual communication. "Most programs for tech communicators have
> them," Carliner says.
> o To boost Web-design skills, try a course in information
architecture.
> o For Web-development skills, sign up for courses in HTML first, Java
> later, and in tools such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Flash.
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