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Re,
> Be sure to give the poor writer something to do
> immediately, ... On more than one occasion, I've
> started a job and not
> done anything meaningful for several weeks....
When I started as a tech editor at NASA I had no
assignment for many days. I worked in the astronaut
office building so I scrounged around and found
foldout diagrams of the Shuttle control panels and
taped them up around my desk in the right relative
positions. Then I went through the Flight Data File
manuals page by page, locating the controls and
readouts and basically imitating all documented
procedures from launch to landing.
This is a legitimate activity: familiarize yourself
with the product while you learn your way around the
manuals and absorb the style.
When there was still no work, I amused myself by
making a magnificent garland of paperclips and cutting
out paper snowflakes. The other editors got interested
and wanted to learn how. We ended up decorating the
entire office with snowflakes hung from the ceiling.
This, I wouldn't do these days.
As it turned out later, both sets of activities,
including the very useful learning exercise with the
diagrams and manuals, fatally offended my managers
--the very same people who didn't provide an
assignment though repeatedly asked. It was not the
right office to be a VHPP in (Very High Profile
Person).
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
+++ Miramo -- Database/XML publishing automation. See us at +++
+++ Seybold SFO, Sept. 25-27, in the Adobe Partners Pavilion +++
+++ More info: http://www.axialinfo.comhttp://www.miramo.com +++
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