RE: Technical Writing Courses

[kimber_hebert -at- acs-inc -dot- com]

But David--aren't these items mostly dealing with project management skills, not
necessarily technical writing skill? Obvious exceptions: sentence/paragraph
structure, task/audience analysis. It seems to me that what I learned in school
had NOTHING to do with any of these skills--I know what I know now because of
work experience. Estimations weren't part of the curricula 11 years ago in grad
school. 

I will say that now, after years in the world, I am feeling the need for
supplemental training in some specific areas of technology and project
management. I've had some great opportunities to learn OJT--and didn't have the
same opportunity in school to work with software designers and developers. 
But when I began, no one expected me to have project management skills other
than self-management, initiative, and motivation. The list you set out is
really, really lofty to me. I know that your company has incredible standards
and produces incredible results. But do you work with relatively (professionally
speaking) young writers, or are your writers more mature, more savvy, more
experienced as project managers because they've worked in Level 1 organizations
where they had to manage themselves and their own deadlines/quality/production?

Regards,

Kimber Hebert


-----Original Message-----
From:   David Orr <dorr -at- ORRNET -dot- com> 
Sent:   Thursday, September 16, 1999 2:12 PM
To:     "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Subject:        Technical Writing Courses 

My company uses many staff and free-lance writers on client projects.
Over 15 years, if I've learned anything, it's that training does make a
difference.