RE: Tech. Writing Assignments

["Swallow, William" <WSwallow -at- courion -dot- com>]

So I take it that this is for your company? If so, how about this:

Give them a deadline for a user manual for something YOU do, and YOU (or
your department) be the SME. Show them what it takes to get the definitive
answers by only answering their questions directly, not volunteering much
additional information.

If a normal class, why not have them collaboratively (in small groups) try
documenting something that they DON'T know too much about - I chose to
document the process of refelting a pool table - at the time I had the
writing assignment in college, and my fraternity's pool table needed a new
surface, so it worked out. I documented my trial and error approach, and
refined the document accordingly to the best practices I determined.

***************** 
BILL SWALLOW 
Technical Writer 
C O U R I O N   C O R P O R A T I O N 
1881 Worcester Road 
Framingham, Mass.  01701 
T E L * 508-879-8400 x316 
F A X * 508-879-8500 
www.courion.com 
***************** 

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