{"id":37,"date":"2003-08-19T18:56:00","date_gmt":"2003-08-19T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/?p=37"},"modified":"2003-08-19T18:56:00","modified_gmt":"2003-08-19T18:56:00","slug":"re-twin-course-content-for-technical-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/08\/re-twin-course-content-for-technical-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Re: [twin] Course Content for Technical Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi
Your hard skills are okay. But you are not specific when you say ‘team
skills’ I mean today everyone is expected to be a team player so it is not
necessarily a skill you know? I’d rather focus on specific skills
like ‘interviewing skills’ and ‘survey skills’: a tech writer spends lot of
time interviewing subject matter experts and technicians to collect
information.
And on the technical front I strongly recommend they understand and learn
SGML, XML, HTML (stuff like the docbook DTDs is important). They have to
understand Mark up languages in order to write something that can be
published anywhere (cross platform). You may want to add in tools like
robohelp, framemaker PLUS a basic course on ‘help’ formats (winhelp, java
help, htmlhelp and so on).
A technical writer writes to an audience so her work has to be user-friendly
so you may want to include a primer on usability and usability testing. (I
can provide material on this)
I think a good technical writer is one that is not afraid of code, that is
ready to skim through reams of material, one that loves talking to people,
one that knows the rules of the language and knows when to break them. And
finally one that loves to write. And understand what ‘being objective’ is.<\/p>\n

Hamsila wrote:
>
>Hi All
>
>I have been asked to help develop a post graduate diploma in Technical
>writing. This could possibly train novices in the field or those wishing to
>take up Technical writing as a career.
>
>As I see it, there are two sets of skills required:
>Hard Skills:
> Language
> Tools
> Editing
> Proofreading
>
>Soft Skills:
> Interpersonal skills
> Team skills
> Research skills
> Motivational skills
>
>Is there anything else that could be included?
>
>Regards
>Hamsila
>
>
>
>……………………..000000000000…………………………..
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>
>
><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/map>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HiYour hard skills are okay. But you are not specific when you say ‘team skills’ I mean today everyone is expected to be a team player so it is not necessarily a skill you know? I’d rather focus on specific skills like ‘interviewing skills’ and ‘survey skills’: a tech writer spends lot of time interviewing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[195],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"HiYour hard skills are okay. But you are not specific when you say ‘team skills’ I mean today everyone is expected to be a team player so it is not necessarily a skill you know? I’d rather focus on specific skills like ‘interviewing skills’ and ‘survey skills’: a tech writer spends lot of time interviewing…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gbk8-B","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/08\/34\/","url_meta":{"origin":37,"position":0},"title":"How to hire a 'Future-Proof'\u2026","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"August 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"How to hire a 'Future-Proof' Technical Writer I came across quite a few recruitment ads in the papers and job announcements in mailing lists that ask for a technical writer. It is good to see that the demand for my ilk has shot up. What\u2019s appalling though is the emphasis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2004\/07\/wanted-sr-technical-writer-for-informatica-corporation\/","url_meta":{"origin":37,"position":1},"title":"Wanted: Sr Technical Writer for Informatica Corporation","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"July 30, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Location: Bangalore Corporate Headquarters: Redwood City, CA Contact: Thao Diep, tdiep@informatica.com Job Description Responsible for writing documentation to support our PowerAnalyzer and PowerCenter Connect product lines. PowerAnalyzer is a business intelligence tool that helps decision makers access, analyze, and share enterprise data. PowerCenter Connect products enable integration to ERP systems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/02\/23\/","url_meta":{"origin":37,"position":2},"title":"The Seven Deadly Assumptions of\u2026","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"February 7, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"The Seven Deadly Assumptions of Technical Communication - William Rice Years ago, as a young programmer\/analyst on a project leader\u2019s course, I made an assumption during a team exercise. Not a crucial mistake, you would think. I assumed that I had all the information I needed to complete the exercise.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/11\/44\/","url_meta":{"origin":37,"position":3},"title":"How to become a technical\u2026","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"November 24, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"How to become a technical writer I got a few mails from aspiring tech writers asking how to be a technical writer. I'll assume that you guys are asking me 'how to get a technical writer's job'. Please note that the content below is inspired by what little I know;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":193,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2003\/06\/193\/","url_meta":{"origin":37,"position":4},"title":"Express IT People: Article on\u2026","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"June 13, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Express IT People: Article on Usability Sankar has written an article on usability in express IT People magazine. Kribs, King, Pradeep and I have been quoted. Here's my take on Sankar's piece. 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Don't want the Quinnox guys ending up with great offers for penis enlargement - suman > Quinnox\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Uncategorized\"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/uncategorized\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}