How I Became a TW/On-the-job training

[Marie McHarry <Mmcharry -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

Hi list:--I've enjoyed all these stories. Here's mine.

Once upon a time, and a very long time ago it was, I went to college and
majored in biochemistry. I also like to write so I took several creative
writing courses. When I graduated, I discovered that I didn't want to go to
medical school or graduate school, so I worked in research labs for several
years. Finding that my life was taking no particular shape, I decided--what
else--to go back to school. I ended up getting a master's in English and
teaching composition and business writing at the U of I in Chicago for 6
years.

At that time, the U of I took just about anyone who was breathing, so we had
lots of kids who had never learned to write (or in many cases, read all that
well). Teaching writing to kids like that turned out to do me at least as much
good as it did them. I recommend it. My mentor was an outstanding teacher, and
with his help, I found that in 10 weeks, I could turn highly disadvantaged
kids from ghetto schools into competent writers. The trick was to teach them
to think and to pay attention to what they wanted to say, rather than harping
on grammar. If the thinking gets organized, everything else falls into place.
This will work for just about anyone.

Eventually I moved on to other things. I interviewed for a job with a
scientific supply house that I saw advertised in the paper and got rejected.
But, miraculously, they kept my resume on file and when they expanded a few
months later, they called me back. The first catalog I did there was a cut-
and-paste markup job that was sent out to the typesetters. I shared a
typewriter with another writer.

Then they really expanded and bought several computers that used Interleaf on
a Vax. Wow. Only they still didn't have enough workstations to go around, so I
had to carry on with cut and paste, while everyone else got a week of training
on the workstations. They did finally get me a PC with WordStar on it. I
persuaded my boss to let me stay after work and learn the new system on my
own. I was amazed at how quickly I picked it up. (Ironically, the guy they had
originally hired instead of me turned out to be hopelessly incompetent in
learning to use any kind of computer; they had hired him because he said he'd
taken several programming courses.)

I worked there for several years and then my husband and I decided to leave
the city. We bought a Mac and invested in QuarkExpress (and later PageMaker
when a client requested it) and, working out of our front room, producing
several manuals for electronics equipment.

Then, when we were sort of between manuals, I saw an ad in the paper for an
editing job. A consulting company wanted an editor to help complete work on a
multivolume siting report for a radioactive waste disposal facility. The job
was only supposed to last for 3 months and it looked interesting, so after
some reluctance to go back to working in-house, I finally applied. Mine was
the last resume they received, and the document manager was about to give up
hope. It was lucky for us both that I got the job. She is one of the best
managers I have ever met *and* a world-class editor. I got what amounted to an
advanced degree in editing and time management. We were working in a highly
structured environment with many levels of official reviews and a close
scrutiny of every word change, not only by authors and reviewers but also by
members of the press and public. Deadlines, of course, were tight and
inflexible. Owing to a number of circumstances, the job that was to have
lasted for 3 months lasted for 3 years. The disposal facility was never sited
but with the experience from this first job I went on to work on license
applications (all multivolume documents done under tight deadlines), siting
studies, and related documents for other nuclear projects.

Now that the nuclear industry seems to be grinding to a halt, I?m doing more
work for engineering firms: proposals, marketing materials, and journal and
magazine articles. The intense training I got on that first nuclear project
has served me well. I?ve become adept at coming up to speed quickly on a
variety of technical studies and in gaining the trust of the scientists and
engineers whose work I?m presenting.

I can?t say the journey has been well planned, but it?s certainly been
interesting.

Marie McHarry
Mmcharry -at- aol -dot- com


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