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.
Often, there are curriculum developers who develop the training materials. They are sometimes, as in your last three companies, the same folks that deliver the training. Sometimes, they are not the same -- the skills are similar but not identical.
You could say the same for technical writers and curriculum developers -- their skills are similar, of course, but no nearly identical.
That said, depending on the writer, that person could do a fine job of developing training material.
Not knowing the business processes may, or may not be a problem. Many times, no one in the organization knows the customers processes -- in this case, all you can train against is the product.
If, however, someone in your organization IS familiar with the customer's processes, and you have the opportunity to train against them, this is great news. Think of that someone as an SME you would interview for a documentation project.
There are a number of professional organizations for training folks -- ASTD and ISPI are two that come to mind. Their sites have a great deal of good data on training in general -- also, the STC has had numerous pieces in their publications comparing and contrasting training and documentation -- these pieces may be of some assistance.
These days, demonstrating a willingness to take on additional tasks (and learn about them, natch) is a great statement to make to your client or employer.
Break a leg!
> > Hi all:
> >
> > At my last 3 jobs,?the trainers themselves wrote the training guides and the Documentation dept reviewed and prettied them up. At this job,?I am told that I am responsible for writing up all the procedures as well. I don't go out and train, I can only just look at the software and write the routines, which is fine but I don't know business processes and am not close to the clients, obviously. I would think being close to the clients makes for more 'real" training.
> >
> > Can anyone comment on this? What do you think is ideal? What are your company experiences?
> >
John Rosberg
Documentation and Training
john_rosberg -at- hotmail -dot- com
2765 Deerfield Road
Riverwoods, IL 60015
847-502-1833
> > Hi all:
> >
> > At my last 3 jobs,?the trainers themselves wrote the training guides and the Documentation dept reviewed and prettied them up. At this job,?I am told that I am responsible for writing up all the procedures as well. I don't go out and train, I can only just look at the software and write the routines, which is fine but I don't know business processes and am not close to the clients, obviously. I would think being close to the clients makes for more 'real" training.
> >
> > Can anyone comment on this? What do you think is ideal? What are your company experiences?
> >
> > Thanks
> > J
>
> --
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222984/direct/01/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
