IMO you'll have more success and happier times if you take the latter route. They'll never need to know FrameMaker and may resent having to learn it. OTOH showing them some of the principles of tech writing shows them that there is more to our profession than transcription and formatting. A lot of "Here's what needs to be done - you do this easy part and we'll take care of the rest" can simultaneously educate them and make them happy that they don't have to handle everything form planning through authoring and review to production and publication and archiving... and in the end you get more respect as they understand all the work you do to make their words look good.
On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Stephen O'Brien <sobrien at innovmetric.com>wrote: > Hi,**** > > ** ** > > A few mechanical engineers have been asked, as part of their varied > workload, to author certain documents in English (How To, Webinars, > software essentials) in the near future.**** > > ** ** > > Working with authors who are not formally trained is a new experience for > me. I am wondering how to best define their tasks and the tasks of my > technical writing group who will work together to ensure quality documents. > For example:**** > > ** ** > > **? **I could provide the engineers with templates in FrameMaker > and an introduction to the basics of technical writing and English grammar > and bring them to write good documents over time. Some formal training in > technical writing could be offered. The technical writers would then review > the final documents (container and content) to ensure the overall quality > of the documents.**** > > ** ** > > **? **Or, maybe the role of the engineers should be to write > rough content within guidelines (get the ideas and workflows on paper), and > my team of technical writers could be responsible for formatting the > content and expressing their ideas/workflows correctly in English. This > would take much less time for the engineer (less of a learning curve).**** > > ** ** > > Do you have some experience in this matter? Any hints for what may work > best?**** > > ** ** > > Many thanks. **** > > ** ** > > Here in Quebec City, Canada autumn is in full color. Mother Nature at her > very best.**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > *Stephen O'BRIEN* > Coordonnateur ? la documentation et r?dacteur technique senior | > Documentation Coordinator and Senior Technical Writer > InnovMetric Logiciels | Software > sobrien at innovmetric.com > *T *(1) 418.688.2061 > *F *(1) 418.688.3001**** > > <http://www.innovmetric.com/> <http://www.youtube.com/polyworks/> > <http://www.facebook.com/InnovMetric> > <http://www.twitter.com/PolyWorks> > <https://plus.google.com/u/0/100086255572014990082/posts> > **** > > AVIS DE CONFIDENTIALIT?/CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: Ce message peut contenir > des renseignements confidentiels appartenant exclusivement ? InnovMetric > Logiciels inc. ou ? ses filiales. Si vous n??tes pas le destinataire > indiqu? dans ce message (ou responsable de livrer ce message ? la personne > indiqu?e ou pr?vue) ou si vous pensez que ce message vous a ?t? adress? par > erreur, vous ne pouvez pas utiliser ou reproduire ce message, ni le livrer > ? quelqu?un d?autre. Dans ce cas, veuillez le retourner ? l?exp?diteur et > le d?truire. Proprietary confidential information belonging to > InnovMetric Software Inc. and its affiliates may be contained in this > message. If you are not a recipient indicated or intended in this message > (or responsible for delivering this message to such a person), or you think > for any reason that this message may have been addressed to you by mistake, > you may not use or copy this message, or deliver it to anyone else. In > which case, notify the sender and destroy the e-mail.**** > > ** ** > > _______________________________________________ > > > You are currently subscribed to framers as john.sgammato at actifio.com. > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > or visit > http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/john.sgammato%40actifio.com > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. > > -- <http://www.actifio.com/> *John Sgammato, Documentation Architect* *e* john.sgammato at actifio.com *c* 508.927.2083 *t* @actifiodocs <http://twitter.com/actifiodocs> 333 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451 <http://twitter.com/actifio> <http://www.linkedin.com/company/399246> <https://plus.google.com/102870897962348937868/posts> <http://www.youtube.com/user/actifio> <http://www.actifio.com/> *Radically simple copy data management * *.** * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/attachments/20131007/b302add9/attachment.html> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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