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The things I've learned the most from about the writing aren't regular classes. I
got so many "aha" moments from customer visits where you see what they really
know and how they really use the software; from using other products'
documentation (sometimes the best teacher is a bad example); and then from
actually training live people on my company's software. Those really made me
look at things from a different angle. But then, I'm way way at the far end of
the bellcurve, at the Empirical over Theoretical end.
I also took Java for Beginners three times from Sun (as an employee so it was
free), and it took til the third time to get any useful learning from it at all.
The third time I got a fantastic instructor, and things finally made SENSE and he
taught instead of just talking. That third Java for Beginners class was the most
valuable class I've ever taken.
It'd be fun to put together a set of courses for What You *Really* Need to Know
to Be a Techwriter. ;>
- Managing techies: A survey of techniques--Flirtation, Friendship, and Food.
- How to avoid 3-hour meetings about "click" vs "click on"
- The big table of donuts in the kitchen: How not to put on the "Entry-level
Eleven"
- The Art of War--Edits: How to get them back without hurting anyone, and how to
make them put comments that are more helpful than "?".
- Professional respect: Stinging comebacks for anyone who asks you to just "put
the commas in the right spot."
Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
solveig -at- getopenoffice -dot- org
OpenOffice.org and StarOffice Training and Books
www.getopenoffice.org/book.html
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