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Dear Jack,
as I wrote to Keith, there is a number of things you can do when you
have a complete writing task dropped on you without any other support
, including status reports, meetings with your manager, following up
conversations with memos, and just generally being persuasive. Yeah!
If in doubt, write the stuff as best you can, guessing if necessary,
mark it UNCHECKED DRAFT and have the content experts prove you wrong,
though that will then require persuading them to actually do the
review.. Of course, where you have absolutely no idea at all, then
embed a note in your draft "MORE INFO NEEDED HERE ON TOOLS FOR
RESECTIONING THE FLUBBLETACK" and continue. Again see or phone and
memo the person with the knowledge, put a note in your report, and
speak about it to your manager at your weekly meeting. Be nice - don't
get dismayed, don't get angry, just be a warm, helpful persuasive
person. Yeah!
Learn selling skills as well, if you can fit the time in. A lot of
what you have to do is persuasion, and that means selling. Even
includes persuading people to let you help them with their product as
you are being paid to do. Yes, it sounds wierd that you have to use
sellings skills to persuade them not to waste the money they pay you,
but ask around - it can be pretty much par for the course. I was at
lecture two days ago, at which we were told that you have to use all
the tricks - guile comes in handy, too - to get the facts so you can
apply the skill you were hired for and turn out a nice clear, readable
text. Yeah!
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Peter Collins, VIVID Management Pty Ltd,
26 Bradleys Head Road, MOSMAN 2088, Australia
+61 2 9968 3308, fax +61 2 9968 3026, mobile +61 (0)18 419 571
Management Consultants and Technical Writers
email: peter -dot- collins -at- bigfoot -dot- com ICQ#: 10981283
web pages: http://www.angelfire.com/pe/pcollins/
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