tailieunhanh - Opportunities in technical writing careers part 11

The language they use must be simple and direct and contain a minimum of non¬functional descriptive adjectives. Their verbs must be in the active rather than the passive voice to eliminate any doubt about what the writing means or implies. | Duties of the Technical Writer 91 most important information to impress upon the NASA people that your company is well qualified to handle the job. But this isn t the end of your assignment. You will have to attend meetings of the sales force so they can help you put your proposal across giving it sales appeal. Then somewhere in the process probably after you have written the first draft you will have to meet with your company s top administrators who will want to scrutinize your proposal backward and forward inside and out. They must pass final judgment on what you have written for the reputation and strength of the company depend on your effort at least in the eyes of NASA. Or suppose that you have been assigned to write a manual. This can be a big job requiring four or five people a technical writer an engineer a designer and an illustrator. Writing a manual is usually a long-term project. Although the material will originate with the engineers who worked on the equipment the manual describes the technical writer must consult many other people as well. You may be the person in the publications department who is responsible for the production of articles and papers. The basic material will come from the engineers and research people but you will work closely with the public relations staff in trying to place the articles in national magazines. To get a single article in shape you may meet with a veritable barrage of management executives patent lawyers and supervisors of one kind or another. You can see then that the technical writer is not isolated in a tiny cubicle working alone. Many hours must be spent on preparing and writing and the writer will become adept at interviewing and attending meetings and become thoroughly familiar with the divisions of the company. 92 Opportunities in Technical Writing Careers Final Words You now know the many types of jobs that are available for technical writers and editors and you can see that there is a good deal of variety