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I am a rather new technical writer, and my first project is to document
the API for a library of C++ functions.
So far my information-gathering process has consisted of programmers
verbally explaining the various classes and functions to me. I then have
to write the documentation from scratch.
Although I have a good technical background and a good background in the
subject matter, the concepts are still new to me. Therefore it takes a
long time (reading about the subject, looking through the code, then
writing, revising) just to produce a few pages of documentation. I've
worried that this process has been going too slowly, but on the other
hand I'm not sure how I could go any faster.
Today, a manager also expressed concern that this project was going too
slowly.
So, my questions are:
* How do you gather information for a project such as this? Is it normal
to have to write this from scratch, or is it reasonable to request
written information from the programmers that I can then rewrite,
format, etc., and which would take a shorter period of time?
* Is my manager expecting too much too soon? Or am I expecting too
little--that is, should I be accomplishing more, in a shorter time
frame?
Thanks,
JR
jlrippel -at- hotmail -dot- com
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