Where to find and how to instruct tech writers

Subject: Where to find and how to instruct tech writers
From: "Johan Hiemstra" <webmaster -at- techexams -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 23:18:49 +0200


Hello,

I have no idea what to expect from this list, but if I'm way off-topic
here, which I don't think I am, please forgive me :)

My name is Johan Hiemstra, I consider myself a technical writer. My goal
is to write a full book one day, about some networking related
certification. Until I reach that goal I try to get by by publishing my
own material on the web (see www.techexams.net). I've been doing that
for about three years now, and had a couple of offers from companies,
including O'reilly. I don't have any particular education in technical
writing, except if Technical Writing for Dummies counts ;). I like to
consider myself a specialist and a generalist at the same time being a
specialist (or being able to become it quickly) in many subjects. I'm
also my own SME in most cases. (I guess you heard that before.).

The thing is that I have written thousands of practice questions and
hundreds of pages with study material (which I call TechNotes) in a
certain 'style'. if it even can be called a style. I'm having so much
fun with the site that I decided to invest some money in other tech
writers to add more site content, but:

1. Where do you find such people? Yes, I found the obvious places to
look for them (http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl, www.elance.com...
www.google.com ) but I need tech writers that can write for
certification exams in particular. with experience, certified, cheap ;).
I guess I'm looking for SMEs who can write. is that uncommon? I figured
with the current economy many people from the technical field with
writing abilities would be desperately looking for work..

2. Do I really need to write some instructions to instruct people 'how'
to write? To keep it in the same style. I want to spend as little time
as possible, the idea of this is to save me time, not become an editor
for someone else's work.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,


Johan


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NEED TO PUBLISH YOUR FRAMEMAKER CONTENT ONLINE?

RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or view a live demo at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l3

---
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.



Previous by Author: off topic - web site info question
Next by Author: RE: VMWare and Tech Docs
Previous by Thread: Help! Policy Governing Consultants & Contractors
Next by Thread: RE: Where to find and how to instruct tech writers


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads