October '95 Meeting ReportOctober '95 Meeting Reportby Craig Cardimon, Data Analyst
Knowledge Express Data Systems (Berwyn, Pennsylvania)
"A glass of wine or a bottle of beer will help you write." This questionable bit of wisdom refers to the popular belief that the application of alcohol will turn anyone into Ernest Hemingway, thereby dismissing the parts talent and education play in writing.
According to speaker Caroleen L. Vaughan, immediate past president of STC-PMC, business writing "stinks" when people don't take the time to learn how to communicate well through writing. Often, scientists and engineers need technical communicators for just this reason--to make sure that they've got someone on their team who can get the job done right. Caroleen discussed the issues that both parties need to consider in forming a working relationship.
When hiring an editor or a writer, you have to look at how much it costs to hire one. Other questions include: How much time does it take to edit one page? What level of edit is required? Does it need only a skim-through, or perhaps deeper grammatical editing or content editing? How much rewriting is involved? How much time does it take to write one page? Are you starting from scratch, or will you be working from notes? If there are notes, are they written or dictated? How much has already been done?
There are also reasons for companies not to write things down. Writing invariably brings organizational blemishes to the fore. Glitches in policies and procedures, nonexistent policies and procedures, and software bugs and company deadwood will be brought to everyone's attention.
To secure a technical writing job, you might have to write a proposal. In this document, you should determine your client's needs; research the competition's abilities and be ready to blast through their weaknesses using your strengths; work with the appropriate in-house experts; make sure contributors are clear about their writing assignments and deadlines. You also have to learn some new abbreviations, including RFQ (Request for Qualifications), SOW (Statement of Work), and RFP (Request for Proposal).
The format and style of the proposal should use an authoritative tone and active voice, appropriate white space, parallel construction, and tables, charts, and graphs--anything to get your point across clearly. The proposal should contain a letter of transmittal, title page, submission page, table of contents, project summary, project description, list of personnel, a budget, and appendices containing resumes, references, and project lists. The project description should contain an introduction, a rationale, plan of work, scope (what you will and will not do), methods and tasks, and a list of facilities. It is important to be specific about the scope of the project because the proposal is legally binding.
In closing, Caroleen, who won a book contract with the IEEE, emphasized that ferocious competition necessitates writing great proposals. If you don't write the best proposal, someone else will.
Copyright 1995 STC Philadelphia Metro Chapter
The Meeting Reports editor is Emily
Skarzenski.
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