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Hi everyone,
I am writing today to find out what makes a good documentation department.
Currently, I am a Rhetoric and Professional Writing student (from the University of
Waterloo) who is on a co-op workterm. The company I am working for is a fairly small
(approximately 35 people) technical company that is growing rapidly.
As of this moment I am the entire documentation department. This job has been very
educationaI, as well as overwhelming. I have come across many obstacles within my
time spent here and at the end of my term I wish to leave a recommendation report for
management to review. Included in this recommendation report I would like to address
the importance of establishing a documentation department, especially in a technical
company that is growing so quickly.
I have many ideas of my own, but I feel that many of my ideas may be clouded by the
perspective of an idealistic student who believes that every situation can be made
easier and any problem can be rectified.
I am very interested in hearing from people who deal with writing technical
documentation on a full-time basis and what they feel are the necessary elements to
creating a functioning documentation department.
If this issue has already been addressed I apologize and ask that you point me to the
threads that I should be reviewing.
Thanks
Jenn Hines
