Engineers as authors

Mon Oct 7 07:44:01 PDT 2013

IMO you'll have more success and happier times if you take the latter
route. They'll never need to know FrameMaker and may resent having to learn
it.
OTOH showing them some of the principles of tech writing shows them that
there is more to our profession than transcription and formatting. A lot of
"Here's what needs to be done - you do this easy part and we'll take care
of the rest" can simultaneously educate them and make them happy that they
don't have to handle everything form planning through authoring and review
to production and publication and archiving... and in the end you get more
respect as they understand all the work you do to make their words look
good.

On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Stephen O'Brien <sobrien at innovmetric.com>wrote:

>  Hi,****
>
> ** **
>
> A few mechanical engineers have been asked, as part of their varied
> workload, to author certain documents in English (How To, Webinars,
> software essentials) in the near future.****
>
> ** **
>
> Working with authors who are not formally trained is a new experience for
> me. I am wondering how to best define their tasks and the tasks of my
> technical writing group who will work together to ensure quality documents.
> For example:****
>
> ** **
>
> **·         **I could provide the engineers with templates in FrameMaker
> and an introduction to the basics of technical writing and English grammar
> and bring them to write good documents over time. Some formal training in
> technical writing could be offered. The technical writers would then review
> the final documents (container and content) to ensure the overall quality
> of the documents.****
>
> ** **
>
> **·         **Or, maybe the role of the engineers should be to write
> rough content within guidelines (get the ideas and workflows on paper), and
> my team of technical writers could be responsible for formatting the
> content and expressing their ideas/workflows correctly in English. This
> would take much less time for the engineer (less of a learning curve).****
>
> ** **
>
> Do you have some experience in this matter? Any hints for what may work
> best?****
>
> ** **
>
> Many thanks. ****
>
> ** **
>
> Here in Quebec City, Canada autumn is in full color. Mother Nature at her
> very best.****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> *Stephen O'BRIEN*
> Coordonnateur à la documentation et rédacteur technique senior |
> Documentation Coordinator and Senior Technical Writer
> InnovMetric Logiciels | Software
> sobrien at innovmetric.com
> *T *(1) 418.688.2061
> *F *(1) 418.688.3001****
>
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