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Subject:Re: Courses to Take From:Beth Agnew <bagnew -at- INSYSTEMS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 16 Jul 1997 08:55:37 -0400
Susan Gallagher (sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com) wrote:
>Beth, a day in the applications training game would shock you!
> ...As a general rule, a trainer becomes an expert at the concepts
>of word processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheet creation, or
>whatever. Then it's easy to match those concepts with the keystrokes
>each individual application uses to implement those concepts. Using
>this approach, you can become an expert in a week, and many trainers
>really do.
Sue makes an important point about conveying information to students under
high-pressure circumstances. I think it's relevant for any kind of
information design or technical communication.
The idea is to get across the _concepts_ or principles of a system,
procedure or function. Then it's easier to overlay the idiosyncrasies of the
particular application onto that solid foundation. Understanding concepts
also helps a student generalize information from one program to another.
Most desktop publishing programs work in much the same way for formatting
text once you understand styles, for example.
Concepts + Keystrokes is not only a good training method, it's a good
communication method. A very good technical communicator can explain
concepts quickly, clearly, and concisely. I'm not talking about huge text
blocks of conceptual information in the first chapters of a manual -- that's
antithetical to what we're trying to achieve. The trick is to distill the
concepts and important information into little concentrated bursts of
knowledge that will resonate with what the user already knows, and give you
a starting point for building further knowledge.
--Beth
Beth Agnew
Senior Technical Writer, InSystems Technologies Inc.
bagnew -at- insystems -dot- com Tel: (905) 513-1400 ext. 280
Fax: (905) 513-1419
Visit us at: http://www.insystems.com
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