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Subject:RE: tech writing From:jgarison -at- ide -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 28 Nov 2001 11:32:06 -0500
When I was teaching tech writing, I used to say that technical writers do
five things - C, I, A, O, and R
C - Conceptualize - Very quickly get an idea of what people are talking
about and be able to extrapolate, provide alternatives, discuss potential
problems, and arrive at a strawman proposal - all within 5 minutes of
hearing the initial idea.
I - Investigate - Learn ALL you can about something using ALL available
resources. Talk to SMEs, read specs, play with prototype software...
whatever it takes to learn all that you can about a project.
A - Assimilate - Get it all inside your head so that you truly OWN the
information and can do the software equivalent of rotating an object,
field-stripping it and reassembling it in your head.
O - Organize - Be able to figure out the best way to provide the information
that's now in your head to other people.
R - Regurgitate - Spew it out onto paper or into HTML or whatever format you
need using whatever tools is available.
If you can do all of those well, you're pretty well equipped to be a writer.
But as someone else added, you need to be flexible, work as part of a team,
and be able to take criticism.
John
John Garison
Documentation Manager
IDe
150 Baker Avenue Extension
Concord, MA 01742
I am in a technical writing/web design course. For our major project, we
are
putting together a comprehensive web site that would be a resource for
graduate level technical writing teachers teaching a course similar to the
one
we are taking. As part of this project I must compile a list of a few
topics
concerning technical writing on a web site that the professor might wish to
cover in such a course. This is my first technical writing course. Could
anyone offer any advise of topics a professor would want to cover in such a
course? Thank you.
Ashlei Woelk
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