RE: Purpose Driven Technical Writing

["Oja, W. Kelly" <w -dot- kelly -dot- oja -at- verizon -dot- com>]

Tony goes on:

"What makes you unique as a Technical Writer? For example:  What makes
me unique as a TW is that I have extensive expertise utilizing rigorous
end-user task analysis techniques - Data Flow Diagrams - to design
end-user friendly documentation.  My own work experiences and
discussions with hundreds of other TWs clearly indicate that I truly am
unique in this regard."

All right, I went back and scanned over a number of the posts when the
subject of "DFD's" first reared its head. I was not the only one on this
list who thought that DFD's were a fancy schmancy name for "flow
charts." 

Considering the number of us on this list who did not fully comprehend
your (Tony) definition of DFD's, what are the odds that an interviewer
is going to understand? In the three places I have worked at and the X
number of places I have interviewed at over the past 3+ years, I was
only ONCE interviewed by someone who was actually a technical writer or
had any technical writing experience. For the most part, it was people
more in line with engineering or human resources or network operations.
And not once did I get asked about DFD's, flow charts, network diagrams,
or any other similar methodology.

The questions I remember most clearly are what types of programs I was
familiar with and the extent of my knowledge in how to use them. My
ability to demonstrate use of crayons and construction paper never came
up.


W. Kelly Oja
Verizon Airfone Inc.
Airfone(r) Service for Verizon Wireless 
Why wait until you land to take care of business?




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