A second thank you from a new tech writer

[Jim Mezzanotte <jmezzanotte -at- wi -dot- rr -dot- com>]

Once again, I want to thank everyone for their input, this time in
particular for providing so many great suggestions for books that might be
of help.

I have to say, I've joined many online communities for different pursuits,
but this community has been one of the most generous and supportive that
I've encounted.

So far, the two books I am getting are "Writing and Designing Manuals" by
Patricia A Robinson and Ryn Etter (suggested by Cathy Arthur as being
specifically relevant for a manufacturing manual) and the IBM publication
"Developing Quality Technical Information" (suggested by Cathy and several
others as being an all around good book, even if its focus is more on
computers).

Tomorrow is my first day--I will be interviewing the owners. My game plan is
to get an overview first, by having them "make" the product for me, start to
finish--raw materials to finished product. They did give me some printed
materials on one particular process, so I will have a bit of a head start.

They've ordered me a laptop, so I can tap things out quickly while they
talk, and they are also getting a tape recorder, though I'm not sure that
will be availabe tomorrow.

For now, I'm just going to take notes in Word and leave off making any plans
for more software until I have a better sense of what I'm dealing with. I
get the laptop tomorrow, and when I do I'm going to download OpenOffice,
mostly so I can get my hands on Draw, for sketching out some rough flow
charts. I really feel like I need a strong visual overview of the production
process, so I don't feel lost in the trees.

I may also try keeping a blog of my adventures on TECHWR-L, if anyone is
interested.

Well, wish me luck, and thanks again to everybody.

Jim


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