Re: Productivity of Technical Writers

[Marcia Coulter <NOTJUST -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

John Eldard (<JOHN -at- SLC -dot- UNISYSGSG -dot- COM>) asked:

>In an 8-hour period, how productive do you think a tech writer or
>editor or illustrator can be? Is it practical to think that since a
>corporation is paying a technical communicator for 8 hours of work that
>every time the supervisor looks in on your cube you must be busily
>writing, editing? How fast would you burn out at that rate?

At least at my desk, writing can look like I'm doing nothing at all.
(Thinking is not the most visible of activities.) And my clients are
just fine with that. To even the most staid organization, the results
are what counts.

I always make my deadlines. And I do it with quality work.

Additionally, I think it's important to put time into "production
capacity" as well as "productivity". That is, learning techniques and
creating tools that boost productivity and quality. The more you learn
or the more tools you create, the more you can get done with less
effort.

JOKE PART OF THE EVENING: My goal is to do all my work with so little
effort that it looks like I'm doing nothing at all. <grin>

Truth: It takes plenty of that thinking/no-visible-activity time to
create this stuff.

And *don't* burn out! It's far too easy to do and not at all worth the
effort.

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Marcia Coulter
notjust -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com