atw: Re: University Research Project - How to avoid working in a void?

Hi Everyone

Thank you for your valuable knowledge and input towards my research report. 
I am going with the line that 'research' (ask questions) is the key, and you
have given me some great advice on how to prepare, research and then refine
till the document is right.

It is interesting to read of others' experiences as I commence my technical
communication career.

Your tips will help me with my uni assigment, as well as my (reasonably) new
job updating and writing work instructions for 'packaging' pharmaceutical
products.

I look forward to learning more.

Thanks again
Cheers,
Maray Sherwood


--- jzolin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I'm with Craig Hadden on this one... There are always factors of
> documentation 
> that you can attend to, pretty much prepping yourself for the smallish window
> of 
> time you might have to use the product you are documenting.
> 
> there is also the factor that with time, a good tech writer will become
> familiar with 
> generalised functionality of products and tools.  there are certain things
> that you 
> can map out (like Creating an X, Changing an X, Deleting an X), which you can
> 
> with some certainty assume (yeah we all know about "assume"!) that enables
> you 
> to get certain amounts of grunt writing work done in a vacuum.
> 
> IMHO---Ultimately, anyone who asks you to document a product that is not yet
> in 
> existence, or is unavailable to the writer might need a check up from the
> neck up if 
> they think the doco is going to be worth more than window dressing.
> 
> Luck with your course
> 
> Joe Z
> 
> 
> 
> > Craig Hadden <CraigH@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > 
> > Maray (Sherwood) wrote:
> > > Sometimes ...you are not seeing or doing what you are writing
> > about...
> > > How do [you] overcome this ...?
> > 
> > Maray, my take on this would be that you can write some parts of the
> > documentation (e.g. conceptual topics like "What is a widget?")
> > without
> > access to what you're writing about. But you might not be able to
> > write
> > procedures accurately, particularly if your audience has little
> > knowledge
> > (and therefore the steps need to be very detailed). 
> > 
> > So, you could structure your time to write and/or check the detailed
> > procedures while you have access, and write other content when you
> > don't. 
> > 
> > Hope that helps,
> > Craig 
> > 
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