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Subject:Re: The Lone Writer From:Steven Brown <stevenabrown -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 24 Jan 2003 07:19:16 -0800 (PST)
Claudette (et. al.),
I was the lone TW for a year at my last job (a
start-up dot com) before being laid off. It was my
first experience working alone, so I subsequently made
mistakes. Here are a couple of thoughts that I hope
will help you.
- I'm assuming your company is small, so if it is
don't treat documentation as though you worked for a
large company. Having worked for a large company
before my last gig, I was too preoccupied with
"strategic" planning -- worrying about
single-sourcing, avoiding the proliferation of
documentation, style guides, etc. As others have said,
your best strategy is to produce as much documentation
as possible (within means) to meet the immediate
information needs of your customers/staff.
- Don't spend too much time analyzing and planning.
Lay out a clear documentation strategy as quickly as
possible and then communicate it to everyone. Of
course you'll want to remain open to new oppurtunities
to contribute to the company.
- Update your resume now and begin an informal job
search. Even though I would've done things differently
at my last job, I'm not sure that anything would've
spared me from getting laid off. When management has
to cut costs, even those who make strong contributions
to the company cannot be saved.
If you are laid off, let the managers know that you
are available to help out on a contract basis. I'm
doing that with my dot com, which is allowing me to
continue to learn new things.
Steven Brown
Technical Writer
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