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Subject:Re: Is tech writing for me? From:Sandy Harris <pashley -at- storm -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 01 May 2002 17:13:56 -0400
Keith Carlson wrote:
>
> ... today's query. Have any of you ever given someone "sample
> assignments" to work on so that they might get a better feel for the work?
> For example: You are going to write a chapter or section in a manual, you
> have your notes, you have other information from engineers or developers.
Methinks that misses a lot of the harder and more interesting parts.
How do you acquire the information? Are you good at reading specs
and asking questions? Do you have the technical background to pick
up what you need quickly?
How do you organise the material? What chapters are needed? Links?
Background material that users may need to know but cannot be
expected to?
How do you analyse audience needs? Do you need both reference
material and task-oriented stuff? Anything else? Do you have
some background in the readers' fields, enough to make your
docs relevant to their problems?
To my mind, someone who can write an adequate chapter but cannot
do any of the rest well might be barely adequate in a junior job.
The really good people are competent in all the above.
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