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Subject:Re: Help wanted for a newbie Technical Writer From:Yvonne DeGraw <ydegraw -at- home -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 08 Dec 2000 09:10:29 -0800
Here's a solution I have enjoyed participating in...
A local company promoted their office manager to technical writer. She has
a degree in English, so she can write OK. But, she has no background as a
tech writer, with FrameMaker etc, or with the stuff she is documenting.
Luckily, she was smart enough to tell them she needed help and they were
willing to listen. The engineers and management asked around and ended up
calling me to help her out. It has worked out great so far.
I've spent about 40 hours total over 5 months doing things like giving her
pointers and things to read, attending meetings where I help interview the
SMEs and then go over what we learned that was useful in the meeting,
reviewing her outlines, bleeding on her drafts with a red pen ("oh, that's
what concise means"), and giving her some "you go girl" support. She works
there full-time and has just finished a ~50 page manual that went out to
the first beta site and was very well received.
I get a fun little contract where I get to play "tech writer guru", and her
company gets good doc for probably about 1/2 the cost of an experienced
full-time writer.
Sonja Waller <swaller_2000 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
>I have to wonder what kind of company would hire a
>very junior writer to do this work?
>
>--- Jane Bergen <jane -dot- bergen -at- usa -dot- net> wrote:
>> Abhay,
>>
>> What you are asking is way beyond the scope of this
>> list. No one can know
>> all the environmental variables,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O-O-O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yvonne DeGraw * Technical writing
DeGraw Technical Services * Online & web-based help
ydegraw -at- home -dot- com * Instructional design
Tel: 805/683-5784 * Database publishing http://members.home.net/ydegraw
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O-O-O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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