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Re: What is a reasonable training period for newbie writers?
Subject:Re: What is a reasonable training period for newbie writers? From:Michele Davis <michele -at- krautgrrl -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sat, 11 Nov 2000 08:48:21 -0600
Guess what? I was baptised by fire. I was a Mac-head, with a degree in English
and many journalism pieces underneath my belt for major trade magazines, a
fiction book, and stringing for UPI. Suddenly UPI needed someone to train their
people on WordPerfect, networking, Excel, etc.
I had NEVER used a PC before. My boss, Gregg, told me to take the thing apart,
put it back together, install software and get it running. I did it, and began
writing training documentation from scratch for people that were new to Word,
and Photoshop for TimeLife Books first. Oh, I was also consulting for Gregg at
something like $4000/month in 1991, and was the lone writer on the project.
I was the kind of chick that never wanted to have a "boss" telling me to wear
nylons because I had nice legs (yes, this did happen), and telling me to get to
the office at 8AM. YUCK!!!
I was a neo-phobe, but I learned, so don't EVER say that one can't start from
the bottom of the pile because you certainly can teach someone new tricks.
--
Michele
> Bruce Byfield wrote in response to my post:
>
> I can't even imagine that a person with zero experience in
> tech writing could go into contracting or into being a lone
> writer in the first place.
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