Year: 2009

Why I am a Technical Writer

Having been in a bit of a lull, I recently asked those who follow me on Twitter what I should blog about. This post is in response to a suggestion from Peter Anghelides who replied: “Blog about why you became a technical author?

Which is a good a topic as any as, like many people in this industry, I certainly didn’t set out to be a Technical Writer, far from it.

For me Technical Writing combines two of my early interests, words and technology. Growing up I read a lot, and was lucky enough that my Dad used to bring a computer home at the weekend. BBC (Acorn) Micro, and later the first Mac Plus. I’ll happily admit to crafting documents (leaflets and the like) in every single available font on one page!

When it came time to leave school, Physics was my main interest area, and looking to add a technology slant I chose a course in Electronic and Electrical Engineering. In hindsight that was a mistake but it’s not something I regret. A few years later, with University behind me, I had converted my part-time job in McDonalds to a full-time job as I cast about for a ‘real’ job!

It was my Mum who spotted an advert in the local paper from a company looking to hire a “Technical Administrator”. The role was a mixed bag of tasks, largely supporting the small development team (all 12 of them) and after successfully negotiating a short writing test about how to use a flatbed scanner, I was soon put to work, writing documentation for their application. With little or no instruction or guidance I looked to those big clunky manuals that I had sitting on my desk, and it’s no small coincidence that the documentation I produced bore a striking similarity in style and layout to that of the Adobe FrameMaker 4.5 manual.

Towards the end of my time there, in 1995 if I recall correctly, I was sent on a two-day training course on how to create HTML pages with a view of setting up a company website. And so my journey on the internet began.

Having been made redundant I moved to England to Dr.Solomons where I gained a LOT of knowledge in a short space of time, working in a well organised, well run team. Some of the lessons learned there I now find myself echoing to my current team. A brief stint running the team also made me realise that I was capable of taking that step up.

The next role relied on my web expertise (a large part of my time at Dr.Solomons was focussed around web delivery of information) and also took me into another large company (was Tetra, now owned by Sage). A different working environment, and yet more to learn.

It was during those early years of my career that I realised that I’d fallen into a wonderful world where I could, if I so wished, dip my finger into a manner of different discussions and be involved with a large variety of people in different areas of a company. I’d speak with the QA engineers about issues with the product, talk to the Product Marketing team about how the product was being sold and who was buying it, the translation team were at the next set of desks and I’ve been lucky that most of the developers I’ve worked with have all been smart, friendly and helpful individuals. Even the grumpy ones.

My first step into team management was taken with some trepididation, but I’ve always trusted my own ability to learn quickly and with a little guidance (and one awful mistake) I think I’ve a good handle on how to get the best from a team of technical writers (for the most part, let them get on with it, they are more than capable without me!) and in the past couple of years I’ve learned a lot about selling our role to the company.

I’ve been lucky, both in the decisions made about my career (not all of which I’ve had a say in with two job changes brought about through redundancy) and especially in terms of the people I’ve worked with. I’ve learned so much from my colleagues, mentors and managers that I do sometimes wonder quite how I got where I am today.

And that’s why I’m happy to say that I’m a Technical Writer*, that I work in the field of Technical Communications and I don’t see either of those things changing any time soon.

* not that I do a lot of writing these days, my official title is Technical Information Manager, read into that what you will

Dear Comment Spammer

To the lovely people who have left some comments on my blog recently, and who may be wondering why they haven’t appeared.

It’s because you have a URL that takes me to a completely unrelated product website.

That and it’s obvious that you’ve not fully read the blog post in question.

I realise you are, probably, getting paid for this, and my hope is that having received no referrer links from this website, you’ll realise that there is no point in continuing to leave comments here.

Besides, of the 14 people who read this website, few would really want to click through to the weird mix of product websites you purport to represent.

Please don’t take any of this personally, but please just sod off!

Ohh, and have a very Merry Christmas!

Numbers game

Better documentation lowers support calls, is a widely held assumption and one I’m hoping to prove in the coming months. With our new knowledge centre in place, and Google Analytics tracking how many people are visiting it, I’ll soon have stats for my side of the fence.

Early numbers (from the past two weeks) show that more people are looking at the Documentation area of our website than are looking at the Support area, but then the knowledge centre (part of the Documentation area) is new so that’s only to be expected and I’m really not expecting to get a true picture of how things are going until late January next year.

Fingers crossed.

With thanks to Rachel Potts for her post on what web analytics can do for technical communications.

Stop making excuses

“Sorry I’m late”

“With all due respect to…”

Sometimes it feels like my life is littered with apologies which, whilst they are nice to hear, aren’t being offered as an apology but as a platitude.

Being sorry you are late once or twice is one thing, continually apologising for being late suggests you are both a. insincere and b. lying.

I’d much rather you just admit that whilst you may feel some guilt for being late, you aren’t sorry at all. For some reasons these people think that saying you are sorry in some way excuses the fact you can’t organise your time and don’t really care that it impacts on MY time (which admittedly I’m pretty damn anal about because I happen to think it’s quite important).

If you have no good reason for being late, tell me why, but don’t expect that an apology makes it ok. It doesn’t.

Same goes for those people who insult someone but make sure they don’t seem TOO nasty by leading with “I mean, with all due respect to…”.

Bollocks to that. You obviously don’t respect someone as you’ve just insulted them. You can’t have it both ways.

Perhaps 2010 should be the year of telling the truth. Perhaps.

December

I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now that it is, without a shadow of doubt, December.

If nothing else, the ceaseless adverts for perfume, chocolate and some really REALLY faked Christmases (c’mon, does ANYONE have a Christmas like the ones on the telly?) should have clued you in.

There is no denying it. It is most definitely Christmas.

Which means two things.

1. The Christmas decorations will go up this weekend, and I’ll spend as much time as I can avoiding doing just that.

2. Blogs all over the land will start their ‘best of’ lists and recaps.

Except this one.

I thought I’d state it right now just in case any of you are waiting with baited breath, because it ain’t gonna happen. Now matter how many times I consider it, and I’ve tried it a couple of times in the past, I just never seem to have the time (or the inclination if I’m honest).

Instead, let us look forward to 2010, the year where a new sun will be borne from the ashes of Jupiter (we shall call it Lucifer) and.. ohh wait, that’s the book.

As ever, life will bring what it will bring, so I probably won’t be doing a lot of “looking forward” either, and it’s much easier to live in the here and now, don’t you think?

Being prepared

It is most definitely Monday. Let me rewind the opening part of my morning for you, to offer you proof that it is most definitely Monday.

~ wibblywobbly wibblywobbly wibblywobbly ~

I’m lying in bed and somewhere in the distance, through the murk of a lie-in I hear the radio. Voices, a rabble, some music, and then the pips. I open my eyes to hear the announcement of the time.

9 AM.

As my eyes close once more my brain reminds me, in somewhat hurried tones, that I have a meeting in Glasgow at 10.30AM and perhaps, you know, maybe, it might be an idea if I got up.

I tell my brain to shut up.

It responds by sending a large jolt of recognition through my body.

SHIT!!! I need to get the 9.50AM train. Shit shit shit!

I leap out of bed, rush through my morning ablutions, haul on my clothes, hurriedly pack a bag (headphones, book, notepad, pen) and check the time. 9.24AM.

The station is a 30 minute walk from the house. I could rush and make it, probably, or I could get a taxi. As it is I’m still half asleep so decide a taxi is the best option.

Having just ‘won’ 10 minutes I decide to boil the kettle for a quick cup of coffee. Whilst it’s boiling I double-check the details of the meeting. The name of the guy I’m meeting, his phone number, the time 10.30AM, the location (big hotel in Glasgow), and yup, it’s happening on Tuesday the 1st of December.

Balls.

I hate Mondays.