Lyndsey Amott, in an article on her website, stresses that industry knowledge should not be a primary deciding factor when mulling over suitable candidates. Her top three must-haves are:

1. design a document that looks good both on paper and on-line
2. design a document that can be updated easily
3. write instructions that are easy to understand

She goes on to say that the proof of a good writer lies in the way they organize their thoughts and that inexperienced writers shouldn’t necessarily be dismissed.

Technical writing consultant Jean Weber makes some good points in this article. She agrees that the writing is more important than the software or technical expertise. She advises companies to look for problem-solvers who keep digging until they find all the answers. But they should be somebody tactful, not abrasive.

Employers are always concerned with costs and staying on budget. If you can relay the value of creating relevant content in a specific context and to a specific audience, you’re on the right track. Remember that as a technical writer you’re the bridge between subject matter experts and the stakeholders, the marketers, and the end-users. Without you, knowledge could not be channeled into capital gain. 

So, if you find your head on the chopping block, start thinking like your employer and ask yourself why they should keep you around. The answer could just save your neck.

To read the article, click on the thumbnail.

Now that’s a major copy-editing FAIL.

The first article is a couple of shorts on the nine most vulnerable areas on planet Earth and toxic toys. The second is an article on why recycling religiously doesn’t necessarily make you a saint.  

I thought I’d acknowledge some of my graduated colleagues who have websites online. The reason most of the sites on the list below are not on my blogroll is because they’re static pages. In other words, they’re not regularly updated - which is a little unfortunate in my opinion because I love to read what people are up to in the minutiae of their lives and enjoy reading the blogs of people I know. I almost never check in with static pages. Facebook’s great, but is more like a sophisticated telegraphing machine than a home you can personalize and make your own.

If you’re a Print Futures Grad and have a blog or regularly updated site that’s not on this list, please let me know  - I’d love to add you.

In no particular order:

Josie Padro: The Probe is Josie’s blog.
Current position: Freelance writer (alive, Vancouverplus).

Shawn Klemmer: You can find Shawn at Wildgrass Communications.
Current position: Public Relations Officer at the Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre.

Pamela Findling: Pamela’s portfolio website.
Current position: Communications Coordinator at Science World (Telus World of Science).

James Lee: James’ portfolio website.
Current position: Procedures Analyst at Central 1 Credit Union.

Laura Kelsey: personal portfolio website.
Current position: Editor of 100 Mile House Free Press.

Nicole Skutelnik: personal portfolio website. 
Current position: Novelist (children’s lit).

Nissa Wells: personal portfolio website.
Current position: Online editor for Tactics Magazine.

Denis Orellana: You can find Denis at DMO Writing.
Current position: Editor of E.GO Magazine.

Kai Jansson: Personal site and blog.
Current position: Copy editor at Stockwatch.

These aren’t all the people I graduated with, but the others don’t have an online presence. Shockingly, there are people in this world who don’t spend all their time on the net!      

The goal is to provide the engineers with a base line so that they can move forward with the design process. This means I’m also creating screenshots of what the man-machine interface (MMI) will ideally look like. I’ve been doing these in Photoshop, but there is talk of moving to a program called Axure, which offers a much richer functionality and the ability to create master modules (so that you don’t have to re-generate a hundred screenshots every time a small change in the MMI is made).

All in all, it’s very interesting being involved at this stage of product development, although I was hoping to do some end-user documentation as well. At this point that looks doubtful as that’s the tech writer in Oregon’s baby.

Some of the work is a bit dry - for example, today I was determining how many characters to allocate a word for translation. The English interface has to be translated into French and Spanish, but there is a limited amount of pixels on the display screen on the phone, so I had to figure out how much wiggle room to allow the translators, in case their translation of “Answer”, for instance, turns out to be a five words long.

The company culture is quite rad - lots of barbeques and once a month there is a social with buckets of beer and an assortment of greasy food (no organic juice like at alive unfortunately). In the lunch room is a sweet gaming setup -two widescreen hi-def TVs - one hooked up to an XBOX 360 and the other hooked up to a Wii. On the table sits a couple of Guitar Hero axes and steering wheel controllers. There’s also a pool table, ping-pong table, and foosball. Basically a geek’s paradise! 

The company usually outsources their documentation to the States. Presently, however, they’re developing a completely new product line (sorry, I can’t say what it is) and need a writer in-house. This is a new position, so the challenge for me will be in ensuring that I get the information I need from the engineers without taking too much time away from their primary tasks. There are other challenges which I won’t get into, suffice to say I’ll be involved in some hardcore digital asset management and interface design…

If the position works out, I could get a permanent position down the road. Anyway, It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for, so I’m excited to start next week!

I could always shell out an extra hundred for the iPod touch. Not that I even like Apple that much. No really, I don’t. All flash and no substance. Seriously. Sleek and sexy - who needs it. Not me.    

“But how?” my students ask. “How do you actually do it?”

You sit down, I say. You try to sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively. So you sit down at, say, nine every morning, or ten every night. You put a piece of paper in the typewriter, or you turn on your computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an hour or so. You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child. You look at the ceiling, and over at the clock, yawn, and stare at the paper again.

Then, with your fingers poised on the keyboard, you squint at an image that is forming in your mind - a scene, a locale, a character, whatever - and you try to quiet your mind so you can hear what that landscape has to say above the other voices in your mind. The other voices are banshees and drunken monkeys. They are the voices of anxiety, judgment, doom, guilt. Also, severe hypochondria. There may be a Nurse Ratched-like listing of things that must be done right this moment: foods that must come out of the freezer, appointments that must be canceled or made, hairs that must be tweezed. But you hold an imaginary gun to your head and make yourself stay at the desk. There is a vague pain at the base of your neck. It crosses your mind that you have meningitis. Then the phone rings and you look up at the ceiling with fury, summon every ounce of noblesse oblige, and answer the call politely, with maybe just the merest hint of irritation. The caller asks if you’re working, and you say yeah, because you are.

Sound familiar? The hardest part about writing is definitely the writing part. Anyway, just wanted to share that with you.