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I've been a technical writer for only one company, and more often than
not, I learn the system and write my instructions from scratch, from how
I see that the software works. I'm not always right in how a user should
do something or how managers would want our users (Note: All of our
software is for internal use) to use a particular feature. So I always
have a SME check my draft when I'm done. If necessary, I'll have another
writer double-check my work by following along in the system and make
sure that my words are understandable and accurate. It's not unheard of
that a process would work one way when I write it and then another later
after they change the software, so double-checking just before release
is a must.
There are rare instances when I am not allowed access to certain
software, such as our payroll system, and so I do have to rely on the
programmers and the SME for accurate instructions. Usually I find steps
that are completely unintelligible and I'll have to meet with the SME to
have her show me the process on her computer. Only then could I ever
understand what she meant to say. I just don't understand how people can
write and feel confident in their documents if they can't check the
accuracy themselves. Programmers don't always use the right words, and
they rarely use the exact terms (field names, etc.) as shown on screen.
And who gets all the screen shots for the document if not the writer? In
my company, programmers get paid more than writers, so it only makes
sense that the programmer not be bothered with getting screen shots so
they can spend their time programming.
Must be nice to do a quarter of the work and still get paid so much...
Kristy Borowik
Training & Technical Publications Developer
I have been working in this company for the past three years. OK, it is
true that I have only recently started to receive a list of deltas
between versions and it is still not complete. So, I do have to do a
comparison which is very long and very tedious. So yes, this needs to be
fixed.
My colleague (a freelancer) believes that he should get all the material
from the engineers. He works without a system (OK, lately there was a
lot of pressure), focusses on what he understands (the warnings for
example, which is obviously trivial compared to the rest) and edits the
English but does not bother trying to make any sense because "this is
the job of the engineers" and doing that would be doing "QA", which is
not our job.
So, this colleague, who has many years of experience, focusses on
editing what he gets and making things pretty. Of course, since he is
very focussed on detail, it takes him a long time. However, if I tell
him that he has to think in terms of user and that the engineers are not
supposed to understand how to do that, he argues with me and tells me
that it is not our job and that his wife is not suppsed to know how to
install this. The unfortunate part is that he does not know either and
he does not even try to understand.
So, he has many years of experience working as a sole technical writer
and doing pretty much everything he wants the way he wants (and gets
paid a lot of money for it). However, even the editing and the
formatting takes him ages and in the end the work becomes my job. It is
really hard for me to commit to a deadline because I can't truly rely on
him and most of the time the work actually falls back on me.
So, is this how it goes? Am I totally wrong and he is right? We get all
the material from the engineers, we don't try to make sense of it and
work with a system, and we assume that the engineers know how to
introduce the material to users. So what we do is edit and format. Write
nice little macros, at times redraw a block diagram and that's it, we
get a huge salary.
Am I expecting too much from him? Am I defining the job the wrong way? I
mean, I remember in my previous company that my boss was also trying to
make sense of things and work with a system (hardware or software), even
if we had to release things very fast.
OK, so now I have to come to my boss and introduce a job descriptoin of
what technical writers are expected to do.
Anybody can help? I am not trying to get a specific list for my company
but a list that shows the responsibilities of the technical writer,
especially a senior technical writer (that reports to me) and that earns
a fortune.
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