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.
Re: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years - Help!
Subject:Re: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years - Help! From:Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 26 Oct 2003 18:23:22 -0800 (PST)
Anne Miller wrote
> There are numerous cases where Managers, Senior Managers, Directors, VPs,
> Chief Engineers, Senior Lead Engineers, and so on, have spent and continue to
> spend many of their highly paid hours on very poor documentation. The most
> recent example of this absurdity is the recently instituted Peer Review
process
> which, at the moment, seems to involve a group of (usually very senior)
people
> sitting around looking for critical program errors in documents that have
never
> been touched by a writer. The bulk of the review time is spent in doing a
bad
> job of what a writer could do much better and much more quickly. About 90%
> of their "findings" include things like typos and consistency that are listed
right
> along with actual program problems related to legality, feasibility,
compliance,
> and so on. In a similar vein we have Technical Program Managers spending
> hours and hours on such trivial tasks as fine tuning acronym lists and Chief
> Engineers insisting on manually numbering all their hea!
> dings and graphics and refusing to let me auto number anything (in Word).
Everything you say in this paragraph is a subjective analysis of the situation.
Perhaps, things like typos and consistence are not considered a big deal.
Moreover, perhaps all the time these people are billing is getting the company
more money. You said this was a huge defense contractor. My experience with
these places is that they will do just about anything to get their bill rates
as high as possible. Hence, having a senior engineer (a high margin employee)
spend countless hours on formatting is probably a LOT more profitable than
having a tech writer (a low margin position) do the work.
> The wasted man-hours here are absolutely staggering. The number of high-level
> people doing a poor job of writing and editing is profoundly disturbing to
me.
(see above) You are likely not as profitable as they are.
> The number of programmers and engineers writing docs rather than doing any
> actual programming or engineering never ceases to amaze me. Although I
> joined the company in 2001, I only began working in an official tech writer
> capacity here earlier this year - after extensive lobbying. Even then, it has
> been an uphill battle. Very few people here comprehend what it is that I
> do - they think I'm some kind of formatter who "pretties up" documents
> just before they go out the door - at least that tiny percentage of the
> documentation that ever crosses my desk in the first place - most of it
> continues to be done by engineers and I am not remotely involved.
It seems pretty obvious that you're biting off WAY more then you can chew. It
seems like you need to simply set expectations with your management. The fact
is, they may not expect or even want you to fix all their documentation ills.
Moreover, they may feel that a tech writer is merely a person who pretties up
documents. Many technical people feel this way about tech writers. You need to
decide if you care to change that opinion.
Also, you may be attributing responsibilities to yourself that simply are not
there. Perhaps this group has no interest or intention on letting you control
anything. FrameMaker was likely phased out for compatibility issues. And they
may have no interest in revisiting that.
If the job expectations do not align with your tastes, then clearly the answer
is simple. Leave the job. Expecting to re-engineer the place right from the
start is likely just going to make you a pariah.
Lastly - you just released a lot of internal information about a major defense
contractor. John Ashcroft probably would not approve. Be very careful what you
discuss on this list and what details you give. You're words ARE being
monitored. Others suggested getting a yahoo account. That's a good idea. But
remember, if you send something from within a company-owned network they can
(and likely do) monitor EVERYTHING, including yahoo and hotmail account usage.
Be careful what you talk about. Its one thing to look for professional help.
Its another to disclose confidential or senisitve information. Make sure you
understand the difference.
RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4
---
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.
