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Subject:Re: Help - my consultants cannot write! From:Ruth Sessions <ruthsessions03051 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:Andrew Plato <andrew -dot- plato -at- gmail -dot- com> Date:Fri, 7 Oct 2011 08:39:47 -0700 (PDT)
Andrew:
I don't believe you should have to train consultants.Â
Did you hire these "consultants" yourself? If so, how did you determine they were qualified?Â
If not, then you should revisit the person who did hire them and discuss the hiring criteria and methodsÂ
of establishing candidate qualifications.
Where are you located? Could you replace them with better people, or is there a shortage ofÂ
tech writers in your area?
Are you paying enough to get top quality technical writers? The rates do depend on your location,Â
but I'm guessing you know whether your rates fall in the low, mid, or high range for the profession.
________________________________
From: Milan DavidoviÄ <milan -dot- lists -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: Andrew Plato <andrew -dot- plato -at- gmail -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Sent: Thursday, October 6, 2011 4:43 PM
Subject: Re: Help - my consultants cannot write!
One idea -- have you considered this already? -- is to find a
technical editor to work with your consultants for a fixed contract
period. Put it on your consultants to study the edits, follow up with
the editor with questions if necessary, and try improving that way.
Also, put it on your editor to provide rich feedback to your
consultants to facilitate their learning process.
On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 4:28 PM, Andrew Plato <andrew -dot- plato -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> Its been easily 10 years since I posted anything to TECHWR-L. I miss
> those blathering posts from the last century.
>
> Okay, I have a real reason for being here. And some of you will
> probably appreciate the irony of this.
>
> I own Anitian Enteprise Security - a security consultancy. I was a
> tech writer in the 90s, spent plenty of time here barfing out my
> opinions. Search the archives. Lots of frothing from me and others.
>
> I am in desperate need of tech writer training for my consultants. I
> have a bunch of information security consultants who cannot write. Its
> infuriating. I edit their material and I want to wring their necks.
> They blather and yammer on about this and that - I need to teach these
> people how to succinctly express complex ideas and write reports.
>
> So, my question is:
>
> - Anybody have any suggestions for training courses, materials or
> guides I can use to teach these people how to write?
>
> - And if there isn't anything good out there, who could develop such a
> program...relatively inexpensively?
>
> Ideally, I'd like some program or class or something I could send my
> consultants through that at the end of it, they would be able to
> write...better. My problem is, I don't want to send them to some
> community college writing class. I need something that specifically is
> focused on complex report writing.
>
> I was going to develop this material myself, but I am just too busy.
>
> I call upon the great TECHWR-L for ideas, guidance, and insight.
>
> Oh, and stop eating hamsters.
>
> Andrew Plato
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