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Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com wrote:
> And it worked. I'm not saying it's the best way to do things, but I was
> able to learn the material fast, keep a step ahead of the students, and
> perform competently.
I went through the same experience, not just as a grad student, but
also as a sessional instructor. In fact, I used to say that, give me
three weeks' lead time, and I could teach anything in the English
department.
However, part of the reason that I could make good on my boast and,
probably, part of the reason that you could survive is that we
weren't entirely starting from scratch. Undergrad degrees are
usually designed to give a reasonably good overview of literature.
Moreover, literary criticism and research is broadly similar through
most of the curriculum until you start getting into the more
linguistic orientation of Old and early Middle English.
Also, I can't help noticing that you said "perform competently" -
not well. There is absolutely nothing wrong with competence, and
sometimes you have to settle for it. But there is even less wrong
with excellence.I'm sure that if you ever taught a course twice, you
did a much better job of it the second time around.
> Kathi, you described your greatest strength as "the ability and willingness
> to seek out information." I think that's an essential skill for a tech
> writer, along with a certain level of empathy for the user. IMO, those
> qualities count for much more than already knowing the material. Any facts
> you learn will become obsolete at some point, but the ability to learn will
> not.
Does it matter if you know the material already or simply learn it
very quickly? Seems to me that the important thing is that you are
reasonably expert by the time you finish the documentation. In
addition, I don't think that knowledge on one hand and learning and
empathy on the other hand are mutually exclusive. A successful
writer needs both sets of skill, so why insist that one is
preferable to the other?
--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
604.421.7189 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"The Queen was in her chamber, a-combing of her hair,
There came Queen Mary's spirit and It stood behind her chair,
Singing, 'Backward and forward and sideways may you pass,
But I will stand behind you till you face the looking-glass.'"
- Rudyard Kipling, "The Looking-Glass"
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