Re: Advice Sought: supervising an extreme novice

["C. Higgins" <cwhitnah -at- NETMEG -dot- NET>]

I agree with all of the respondants on this topic, and would consider
Ginger's points seriously, too. My feeling is as a summer help person, you
would do well to give her the background you spoke of and then to set her to
discrete tasks. Break her work down into tasks that will help you get
through a phase of the project, such as processing the text you have drafted
or converting your sections into the HTML docs. If you ask her to prepare
text for your to finish working on, expect to do some heavy editing. It may
be helpful for you to have her do this, though, for example, get the chapter
sections or subjects into text, read and edit it, have her proof and change
the edits you made so that its ready to go into the new format. Breaking
even this down into chunks "OK, Monday and Tuesday you can type up chapters
5 and 6 while I finalize the first four chapters, Wednesday I will edit your
text while you conventionalize these graphics for me, Thursday you can
correct my edits on 5 and 6 and I will do the hyperlinks and graphics, etc.
etc.

That way she's just helping you with the tasks you need to get through on
the project, including making copies, filing, scanning images?

Cheryl L. Higgins,
Ensemble Productions
cwhitnah -at- netmeg -dot- net


From: Ginger Moskowitz <ginger -at- AATECH -dot- COM>
To: <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 1999 9:34 AM
Subject: Re: Advice Sought: supervising an extreme novice


> Since this student is only with you for the summer, you might do better
> using her as your assistant than trying to make her into a tech writer.
Does
> she have to work on the new product, or can you use her for
> editing/compiling/proofreading/etc. on existing documentation? If she
takes
> some of this workload off you, then you can start documenting the new
> product, and give her the edits/texts to type out electronically.
>
> If this person was going to be a permanent employee (ugh), I'd spend time
> training them and working on their writing skills. But in this case, is it
> really worth the time?
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michele Marques [SMTP:mmarques -at- USA -dot- NET]
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 1999 5:51 PM
> > To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> > Subject:      Advice Sought: supervising an extreme novice
> >
> > Although I have supervised people before, I have never supervised a
techn=
> > ical
> > writer, and am looking for advice (other than "don't do it") for
supervis=
> > ing
> > an extreme novice.
> >
> > Background: I am a lone tech. writer who normally would not have the
> >   resources to work on the project in question for at least month. A
> >   university student (who is not studying to be a tech. writer or other
> >   writer) is working this summer in my company as a general assistant.
> >
> >   Someone had the idea that I should supervise the student in writing
> >   WinHelp (possibly HTMLHelp) files for a new product.
> >
> > Does anyone have any advice for supervising this student? I am throwing
h=
> > er at
> > the mercy of the programmer to learn about the product itself. I have
For=
> > eHelp
> > Premiere and will be assigning her to work through the tutorial (to
learn=
> >
> > about the basics of building help files or even what goes into help
files=
> > ).  =
> >
> >
> > Please let me know if you have any other suggestions. =
> >
> >
> > Thank you.
> >
> >      - Michele
> >        mmarques -at- usa -dot- net
> >  =
> >
> >
> > ____________________________________________________________________
> > Get free e-mail and a permanent address at
> > http://www.netaddress.com/?N=3D=
> > 1
> >
> >
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> >
> >
>
>
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