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RE: "Too Good" (was: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years - Help!)
Subject:RE: "Too Good" (was: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years - Help!) From:"Anameier, Christine A - Eagan, MN" <christine -dot- a -dot- anameier -at- usps -dot- gov> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 27 Oct 2003 14:25:52 -0600
> No. Having a photographic memory doesn't mean you
> remember everything you've seen. It means you can
> capture a ton of value in a recognizable yet small
> visual trigger.
Hmm. OK. So if I'm understanding you right, less is more, and maybe an
outline is better for you than a block o' prose.
> Most of my notes have been small sketches of glyphs
> and words - minimal detail. I capture the gist or feel
> of what I need to remember. Everything else falls into
> place. It's more of a visual key to unlock what I've
> absorbed.
Interesting. "Everyone learns differently" indeed. I retain stuff that I
actually use (or find really intriguing), but everything else tends to
wind up in the "just remember where to look up the info" bucket.
>> Maybe the ideal training handout would be a
>> detailed, complete, heavily
>> illustrated explanation, with key terms in boldface
>> AND big white spaces
>> for the trainee to add notes? :)
>
> Ugh.
> A training handout should NEVER be confused with
> a user manual. A traning guide goes through scenarios,
> preferably pertinent to the trainee. A user manual
> tell is like it is, completely.
By "complete" I don't mean "covers everything about the subject
matter"-- I mean "stands on its own without needing trainee-written
notes to be intelligible." Whole. Sufficient.
Scenarios, yes-- but I would opt for *detailed* scenarios. With pictures
and steps. What I was casting aspersions upon was not a training guide
with pertinent scenarios -- it was the typical "eight pages of
fragmentary bullet points" handouts that some trainers rely on. The kind
of thing where you go back later and find the handout mystifying:
* WIDGETS (handwritten doodling in margin, or was that a graph?
handwritten note in right margin, underlined twice: "Pick up chicken
after work.")
* FOOBERS (handwritten note: "grackling?")
* XYZZY (handwritten note: "See document 12Q3B")
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