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.
Subject:Re: Teaching a writing class for co-workers From:kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 3 Feb 2003 15:04:36 -0700
Ashley wrote:
>So far, I'm thinking of covering the following topics:
>* Review the article writing process (since many of the students have
>never written one of these articles but will in upcoming months).
>* Demonstrate how to use the correct template and styles. (I spend a good
>amount of time each month applying styles to these articles.)
>* Give tips on organizing information.
>* Provide guidelines on writing clear procedures.
First of all - beware. You may be teaching others to replace you.
On a more optimistic note, I'd skip that second bullet. Very few people
grasp the idea of document templates, mostly because they just don't care.
It will be faster for you to correctly apply styles when you're editing,
than to clean up all the styles they'll use erroneously when armed with 15
minutes of template knowledge.
Basically, I'd teach them how to provide you with editable information.
Give them a checklist of what kind of information you need, and then pour
your energies into editing their work in such a way as to show how much
difference a REAL writer can make. Don't waste time training them to
compete with you; instead, teach them to facilitate your job.
Keith Cronin
Rap was invented by white guys almost 200 years ago, but back then they
called it square dancing.
Buy or upgrade to RoboHelp X3 today and receive the WebHelp
Merge Module for FREE ($299 value). RoboHelp X3's all-new
features include conditional text, completely re-engineered
printed documentation output, Context-sensitive Help Toolkit,
single-source layouts, and more!
Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
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.
