Re: Scenario: You're hired a new writer...

[Betsy Perry <betsyp -at- VNET -dot- NET>]

Anonymous asks:

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Here's the scenario:

You've hired a new writer (with 1-2 years experience).  You've given
them no information on what is expected of them, but you have given them
a variety of assignments.  What do you expect them to be able to do with
the following assignments:

Convert to documents to on-line.
Index a new manual.
Input edits marked-up by your technical editor.
Write a documentation plan.
Write a manual.
Write a white paper.
Update a manual.

------- end of forwarded message -------
(I'm using "young" to mean "inexperienced" here; somebody can be a
"young" technical writer at 67 if he's only got a year of writing
experience.)

What I expect writers to know depends on what they told me in the
interview.  If the writer told me that she'd indexed manuals, I'd
expect her to be able to create an index without close supervision; if
she didn't mention it, I wouldn't make any assumptions.  I would
expect a young writer to be very familiar with updating manuals,
because most pubs departments reserve creating documents from scratch
for the more experienced writers.  If a writer didn't know how to
write a documentation plan, I'd take an hour to teach him.

I expect young writers to be unfamiliar with many tasks.  What matters
is how they _confront_ unfamiliar tasks.  Does the writer say "Gosh,
I've never done an index before, how can I learn?"  Or "I haven't
converted to HTML before; should I just read the manual and plunge in,
or are there special rules you want me to follow"?  Or does he say "I
don't know how to do that.  I guess I'd better do something else", or,
worse yet, "I haven't had a class in that, so I can't do it."?  Worst
of all is the writer who can't do a task, but never tells her
management she has a problem.

I expect writers to be willing to train themselves; writers who can't
be bothered to learn unless somebody is teaching them are a dead
weight in any department.  An inexperienced writer who learns well and
quickly won't stay inexperienced long.  A writer who won't learn
soon becomes "inexperienced" because his/her experience is out of date.
--
Elizabeth Hanes Perry                    betsyp -at- vnet -dot- net