Re: the way it's supposed to work
...
More succinctly - tech writers are generally hired
to explain how things are,
not how they would like things to be.
Dunno about that. More than once I've been told to
document the way it was
supposed to work, not the warts-and-all mess they're
shipping out the door.
Not just the doc side, but I make a good chunk of my
living explaining how things *should* be. Half my
working hours are spent in meeting rooms and in
hallway conversations about change, and how to manage
that change.
Writing is cool. I can do it. It feeds my kids. But,
problem solving is what I love, and what makes getting
up in the morning for work worthwhile.
Well put! Much of my time spent on projects is spent
in working with the engineering team to determine what
kind of changes we'll make, and to figure out how to make
those as transparent to users as possible. Sometimes my
technical writing contribution is virtually nil, as the
"why don't we try doing it this way" contributions resulted
in functionality changes that required no user effort at
all.
I may have been hired to "explain how things are", but I'm
useful because I do far more than that. The more time
I spend on how things should be, the more value I add.
Eric
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ROBOHELP FOR FRAMEMAKER TRIAL NOW AVAILABLE!
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.
Follow-Ups:
- Re: the way it's supposed to work, Goober Writer
References:
the way it's supposed to work: From: Goober Writer
Previous by Author:
Re: Word, Frame, xml authoring and work flow. Opinions? (long)
Next by Author:
ADMIN: Re: Courseware Developer
Previous by Thread:
the way it's supposed to work
Next by Thread:
Re: the way it's supposed to work
Search our Technical Writing Archives & Magazine
Visit TechWhirl's Other Sites
Sponsored Ads