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Jane Carnall wrote:
"I learn enough to ask good questions (I begin, of course, by asking stupid
questions) and
to notice when something is appallingly wrong with an example and to clarify
a developer's comments."
Asking questions until you learn enough to explain the process to others is
a valuable skill. In fact, you should tell a prospective employer than not
knowing their subject is actually a plus. You will ask the same questions
new users will ask, see the product from their prospective, notice
inconsistencies and awkward UIs and, therefore, help development and produce
better documentation with no holes. I know this is a strong selling point
because I've won several contract positions over the years using that very
statement.
To clarify my particular position, I am both writer and technical writer. I
wrote non-fiction articles and fiction before a divorce pushed me out in the
world to make my own living. I quickly got a job writing training materials
because they said the published articles showed I could write and they could
teach me training. I was pleasantly shocked to discover someone would
actually pay me a salary to write, something I loved to do. (A wonderful
plus, I now make far more money than my ex who wanted the divorce <g>) I
learned a few programming languages enough to read them and write
programming manuals. I taught myself WordBasic and some Visual Basic and it
helps me understand better when programmers try to explain something,
although I doubt I could sit down and code anymore. It's been a few years.
Working long hours in startup companies doing almost anything that needs to
be written, and editing the rest, I have little time for fiction these days
but I am writing a series of animal care books (58 if I do everything that's
planned) and spend my weekends doing interviews and evenings writing. Any
profits will go to a little cushion in the current shaky job market. (My
daughter got laid off last Friday after only 5 weeks at her editing position
only to be called at home an hour and a half later, by the same person who
gave her the bad news, and was offered a freelance editing position with the
same company.)
Everyone has their own strengths. Some lean to the writing end of the
spectrum, other to the technical side, while others, like me, hover in the
middle, dabbling on both sides of the fence. But when even items like a
rubber mat for the bathtub come with written instructions, all of us should
have plenty of work, now and in the future. Good luck, everyone....
Kathy Frost
Senior Technical Writer
Partnerware, Inc.
(Extended Customer Relationship Management software)
Austin, TX
KFrost -at- Partnerware -dot- com
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