RE: What do you write?

["Joe Malin" <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com>]

I'm not sure what the difference is between user manuals and internal
systems documentation. I try to figure out what my customers need, and
then set that as the highest priority for writing. Most of what I write
is used internally, because our market is still very much oriented
towards buying our system and letting us run it.

Do you have a particular reason for wanting to write user manuals
instead of systems documentation?

Joe 


Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625-1623
jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com 
www.tuvox.com
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not
necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.	

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Tech Writer
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 11:27 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: What do you write?

I have been a tech writer for almost a year, having previously worked as
a software engineer in the same company.  I love the change, but there
is one thing that bothers me about it.  I expected to spend most of my
time writing user manuals and help files, as our software is sorely
lacking in user documentation.  I firmly believe that documentation
would improve the quality of our product.

Unfortunately, I am more often assigned to write internal systems
documentation that is either ignored or simply filed away somewhere,
mainly because this is a small enough company where everyone already
knows how to perform their job from pre-existing documentation and
notes.  (The "head cheese" who assigns these projects to me apparently
doesn't see it that
way.)  I'm afraid that my developer past is keeping me tied to those
types of projects.  I really want to build writing experience and to
gain knowledge of many types of documents.
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