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List:       opensolaris-docs-discuss
Subject:    Re: [docs-discuss] [mentoring] If someone wanted to become
From:       Brendan Gregg - Sun Microsystems <brendan () sun ! com>
Date:       2008-02-13 23:22:38
Message-ID: 20080213232238.GA478472 () zion ! sfbay ! sun ! com
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G'Day docs-discuss,

Speaking for the many customers I've worked with, priorities for technical
documentation are:

	1) accuracy
	2) relevance

Style is important too, but I'd be careful to balance it with a focus on
technical content - which is most important.

Another important point is that as a technical writer you should be
prepared to document topics for the first time - ie, the primary source
of documentation.  This will mean a good techincal understanding of the
problem space, including how customers currently achieve tasks and how
new technologies should be used.  This may be best gained if you have
actually been a customer for a number of years.  There will also be
times where source code should be examined for answering deeper questions.

Brendan

On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 08:26:02AM -0600, elw@stderr.org wrote:
> 
> > In summary,
> > - Engineering
> > - Masters degree
> > - Bachelor's degree with technical writing and/or literature credits
> > - Others with established technical writing skills.
> 
> 
> 
> Graduate programs in Technical Communication and Professional Writing are 
> typical sources for skilled technical writers.
> 
> These folks can be much simpler to work with than engineering graduates.
> 
> Purdue's TC program would be an interesting one to try to coordinate 
> something with: they have a large and active writing program as well as a 
> campus with serious Solaris expertise available nearby.
> 
> --elijah
> _______________________________________________
> docs-discuss mailing list
> docs-discuss@opensolaris.org

-- 
Brendan
[CA, USA]
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