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Re: Selling a team on the technical writing job role

Subject: Re: Selling a team on the technical writing job role
From: ct <straylightsghost -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 13:24:43 -0700

Be bold.
Be strong.
Make Blood.

And bless you in your quest.

The best suggestion I can give you, that will be the greatest boon to your goal?

Get Executive Buy-off...have them send out an email to the team. It
should introduce you and let them know what you will be doing and
asking them (demanding even) to cooperate with you...in whatever
verbiage is deemed necessary. Get an advocate and use them (but do
not abuse them.

Viola! Train them nicely.

Oh! And make nice with the IT department.

It's a good and fun challenge and can be very rewarding.

-Collin

On 2/9/07, nita daniel <ndaniel -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

Hello,

I need to educate my team on how to use me. We're on a newish project,
and our methodology for our ongoing work is still evolving as we make
discoveries. I'm going to talk about it in our weekly meeting. I'm
like a new, versatile kitchen gadget that they just don't know what to
do with.

And along those lines, I was thinking of giving them a
"congratulations on your acquisition of a technical writer!" sheet.

So I'm looking for ideas on goofy things to include in that. But also
useful information. When to get me involved. Why to get me involved.
And maybe a little bit of what to expect.

As far as when, frequently people see a need and start a brain dump
into a word document. So, keeping that in mind, my brainstorm has
yielded the following prompts to get a technical writer involved:
* When you need something written
* When you decide this is information other people could use
* The third time you revise something
* When you have trouble figuring out how to say something
* When you solicit input from others or collaborate
* When you can't make a program display something the way you want to

As far as why?
* I have specific software skills
* I have specific conceptual and document organization skills
* I have specific writing skills
* I have specific software tools
* Documentation that "looks pretty" is easier to skim, easier to
understand, and puts the user in an emotional space to absorb the
information
* Free your time

What to expect?
* I don't care if you misspell things or use funky grammar or
punctuation. I'm interested in the actual information you have in your
noggin.
* While I expect blunt criticism of the efficacy and accuracy of my
work, my own feedback is of a more human scale
* Expect documentation to be consistent
* Expect to have more time to focus on your own things

I know we've all found ourself in this situation. Have anything to
add? Phrasing to suggest?


Thanks,
Nita Daniel
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Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

Now shipping: Help &amp; Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help &amp; Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com

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References:
Selling a team on the technical writing job role: From: nita daniel

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