RE: Off to the side of Re: Interesting use of infographics for a resume

[davec <davec2468 -at- aim -dot- com>]

>  > ... Will we ever return to the day when tech writers were hired
>>  on the basis of their ability to understand and make sense
>  > out of something in which they are not already experts?

-=-=-=-

I was hired on that basis, and I don't think I'm the only one.

-=-=-=-

Indeed. I have always understood that a good technical writer be good 
not only at forming ideas into words and arranging them appropriately 
on the page (pulp or web) but in being a "quick study", quick to 
grasp ideas & concepts, learn the new and "grok" it. Then when the 
project is through, they are (almost) a SME.

Then the writer begins the next project where he/she is the innocent 
user again.

It is this saw-tooth learning curve that the writer climbs that makes 
them most valuable to a product development team. The worst writers 
are those so close to -- and familiar with -- the product that they 
cannot take the innocent POV of a new customer. The writer, asking 
"stupid" questions, is the most valuable member of the team, in many 
ways, representing the user, noting what the ignorant customer 
doesn't know and using that to form the basis of a good instructional 
manual.

Oh, the many contracts I didn't get because the hiring manager was 
looking for a writer who had in his/her portfolio a manual "just like 
the one we need written". In other words, they were looking for a SME 
who could write. It was my job to educate the manager in as short a 
time as possible -- frequently in the time allotted for an interview 
-- that a good writer is not required to be a SME, but rather be a 
quick study.

IMHO.

Dave
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