TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I have a tight deadline coming up (12 working days) in which to coordinate
4 inexperienced writers (they are technical experts, not writers, but are
writing due to the time constraint).
Do any of you have recommendations on how I can make sure I get the
documentation from these "writers" in time for me to format and edit the
data? (And run it past reviewers and update it.)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A year or so ago I put together about 150 pages of system doc in about 10 days with nothing but non-writers. They got behind it because their managers AND the CTO got behind it. They were all part of the meeting that decided what each of them had to produce, all very energetic. I thrwe together a basic "template" (as in fill in the blanks, not as in Word Styles) for them to fill in as appropriate for their areas of expertise. I could never have created the document on my own in the time given.
It may have helped too that jobs were,more or less, on the line. This complete system description was part of the "trousseau" the company was using to woo new partners.
They wrote what they could. I made it comprehensible (the polyglot challenge was interesting. :) We nailed the deadline. The (now ex-)CTO still thinks I walk on water. But the point is, it took major support from the top and committment from everyone, not just the "mere editor" me.
Maggie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
PC Magazine gives RoboHelp Office 2002 five stars - a perfect score!
"The ultimate developer's tool for designing help systems. A product
no professional help designer should be without." Check out RoboHelp at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
