Subscribe to the Journals Of course, since the year has turned, it’s time for some new year’s resolutions. Here are ten resolutions for technical writers:
- Finally learn what DITA stands for.
- Delete that “For more information, go to our website” line from the Internet access setup instructions.
- Tell the project manager: “It’s all right if no one reviews the project plan for you. No one reads the plan anyway.”
- Read the Society for Technical Communication’s bylaws.
- Find a professional conference that costs less than the bill for your car’s transmission replacement.
- Secretly sew a small, wireless microphone in the lining of the project manager’s tie so you can hear about project schedule changes live.
- Start writing a book on a tech comm topic that will still be relevant when you finish it.
- Convince your teammate that your favorite help authoring tool really is the best thing since sliced bread.
- Keep your heart rate normal when someone uses “media” as a singular noun.
- Decide what your job title is for real.
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2 Comments to 'Ten New Year’s Resolutions for Technical Writers'
January 8, 2010
[...] Given that it’s a new year, a lot of people are writing about trends and predictions in technical communication. Ellis Pratt at Cherryleaf has an interesting post on the Top 10 Trends in Technical Communication for 2010. Larry Kunz has a post on Technical Communication Trends in 2010. Sarah O’Keefe chimed in with 2010 Predictions for Technical Communication. And Ben Minson has Ten New Year’s Resolutions. [...]
January 19, 2010
Point three is risky because it’s hard enough getting our own documents reviewed, without perpetuating it by not returning the courtesy to the PM
I’ve finally managed to get a PM to add the documentation review process to their project plan, but it only allocates my time, rather than that of the people who are supposed to be reviewing the docs! The time I need to borrow from them for information gathering purposes is also missing. One day we’ll get there…
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