TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Under the subject "Preparation for a phone screen
interview," John Posada declares he has never missed a
deadline in 10 years. Susan Gallagher comes in with 20
years with no missed deadlines. jgarison proudly
reveals 30 years with no missed deadlines!
New technical writers lurking on the list may be
wondering why no one is coming out and admitting that
they missed a deadline once or twice. Only a
mean-spirited begrudger would entertain the notion
that these three have selective memories. ;-) No,
there are only three possible answers to the lack of
confessed deadline-missing:
a) Our profession attracts only the most able and
conscientious individuals, for whom, as John P put it,
a missed deadline is not even within the realm of the
conceivable.
b) When tech writers miss a deadline, they are drummed
out of the profession forever (think of the 60's TV
series "Branded").
c) The final possibility is so remote that I hesitate
to even mention it: perhaps some of us *have* missed
deadlines and lived to tell the tale, but are so
deeply ashamed that they will never admit it to
anyone.
Many thanks to those posters who have discussed their
successful approach to meeting deadlines. Joking
aside, it's of paramount importance and all advice
should be welcome to those for whom time management
remains an issue.
Now for my mea culpa - in my early days as a tech
writer, I missed a deadline or two. I had been a
technical translator for ten years prior to making the
jump, and had become entrenched in certain work habits
that were no longer appropriate. In particular, as a
translator I could, when I needed to, increase my
speed of work without a significant change in quality;
I discovered I can't do that as a writer. Also, I was
used to working by myself for the most part--the main
thing, after preparation, was to close the door, sit
down, and crunch the language. Suddenly I was in a
software company, an environment where the shifting
sands of specifications (regularly changed without
notice), subject-matter experts (who, when they
deigned to reveal all relevant information, rarely
agreed with one another), and project management
(oops, drop that and work on something else, then a
third thing, what do you mean the first isn't
finished?), meant that my ivory-tower routine didn't
cut it.
Luckily, my game of catch-up never endangered a
project, and a couple of friendly but frank
discussions with my manager led to a clear smelling of
the coffee. I changed my evil ways, and have moved up
the ladder to Senior Technical Writer with no further
incident.
My own methods of meeting deadlines include: keeping
the dates posted on the wall next to my computer;
getting a clear vision in my head of the stages I have
to go through to finish the task, and foreseeing any
obstacles to each stage; reading the scores of emails
we receive on project planning carefully and asking
any questions I have *promptly*; setting priorities
for multiple tasks and alerting my manager if one
deadline is threatened when another task's urgency is
upgraded (in other words: rather than miss a deadline,
renegotiate it in a timely fashion).
All this to say to any less-than-perfect or
inexperienced writers out there: Do not despair!
Missing a deadline is like any other
screw-up--professional success depends on avoiding it,
but even if you do screw up, it's not the end of the
world. You can learn to improve. If I did it, anyone can!
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Help Authoring Seminar 2003, coming soon to a city near you! Attend this
educational and affordable one-day seminar covering existing and emerging
trends in Help authoring technology. See http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.
A new book on Single Sourcing has been released by William Andrew
Publishing: _Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation_
is now available at: http://www.williamandrew.com/titles/1491.html.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
