TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
RE: Calling all "Lead Writer" or "Information Architects" -- what do you do?
Subject:RE: Calling all "Lead Writer" or "Information Architects" -- what do you do? From:"John Posada" <JPosada -at- isogon -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 24 May 2004 09:50:18 -0400
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Calling all "Lead Writer" or "Information Architects" -- what
do you do?
I've recently been prompted to "Lead Technical Writer" at my company.
That's the good news. The bad news -- my actual responsibilities in that
role are unclear. I'm having a real disagreement with my manager about
how my responsibilities should change. Currently, I do the bulk of the
writing for our team of 4. I'm proposing that, as lead writer, I become
more of a facilitator, doing things like mentoring other writers, doc
project management, writing (as an overflow writer), interacting with
other teams (such as, development, QA, product management,
-------------------------------
To my company, I'm the Documentation Manager...it says so on my business
card. However, I consider myself a writer. How do I juggle the two
things?
- When there is a meeting on any product that impacts documentation, I'm
there to make sure our requirements are represented.
- I attend weekly status meetings to inform the departments where we
stand.
- I'm the documentation representation at weekly Product Engineering and
Quality Assurance meetings.
- I'm consulted on most purchases for the department, such as printers.
- We added a couple of interns, I was consulted on what they were to do
over the coming weeks.
- I keep my manager (Director of Communications) honest on workloads,
scheduling, commitments
- I contribute to his management agenda for the COO's weekly status
meeting.
- I check in with any other writers to address any difficulties they may
be having and get them ironed out so they can get back to writing.
However, I still write most of the day. I wouldn't have it any other
way. You can do everything you want to do, and still write..what you
describing that you want to do is not a full time job...should only take
you a couple of hours a day max.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Isogon Corporation http://www.isogon.com
"Realizing Your Business Goals
Through Software Asset Management"
SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION: RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward
in Help authoring technology, featuring Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo
>From a single set of Word documents, create online Help and printed
documentation with ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 7 Professional, a new yearly
subscription service offering free updates and upgrades, support, and more. http://www.doctohelp.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
