Re: A Question for Newbies and Intermediate Writers

Subject: Re: A Question for Newbies and Intermediate Writers
From: Fred Sampson <wfreds -at- cruzio -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 22:01:55 -0700

I just finished a six-month internship in an established doc department, and moved from there to a very small tech pubs department at another company. The contrast in orientation styles is as day and night.

As a relative newbie to tech writing (I have plenty of writing and working experience, but hadn't pursued a tech writing career before), my recommendations are:

* Give your newbie a solid orientation/introduction to the company and to your department; context is valuable.
* Let your newbie know what the policies and procedures are, where to find the style guide and templates; if you don't have these, for shame!
* Give your newbie a rundown on who to go to for help, on network directory structure, on printer locations and controls, on all the tools the newbie will use . . . in other words, don't make the newbie waste time tracking these things down--someone in your department knows all this stuff, hand it over.
* If you have an editor, have the newbie get acquainted right away; if you use peer edits, say so, and hand over the style guide. And then tell your newbie what rules are regularly ignored.
* Make your newbie feel welcome. It's hard enough starting a new career and a new job without feeling like you shouldn't be there.
* Your newbie will make mistakes. That's how we learn. Let the mistakes be made on substantive style issues, on technical accuracy, on cultivating developers, not on losing a file because the newbie doesn't know which of your 10,000 directories it should go in.

Sounds to me like you're already considering these issues, since you're committed to avoiding the "on-the-job self-training program" I've seen too many times.

Good luck,

Fred Sampson
wfreds -at- cruzio -dot- com





Previous by Author: RE: Don't think everyone doesn't make mistakes?
Next by Author: RE: Conference Recommendations - Why not Hawaii?
Previous by Thread: Re: A Question for Newbies and Intermediate Writers
Next by Thread: FrameMaker 6.0


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads