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Being Human in a Technical World

I've had several meetings with new clients over the last few weeks and in almost every case, as I leave, I think to myself - I liked them. Technical writing is a job, a career even. What it shouldn't be - ever - is your whole life. Pretty much every meeting I go to begins with those few minutes of socializing - in Hebrew, or in English, it doesn't really matter. What is important is that the company…

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September 23, 2012
Technical Writing / Writing

Estimating the Impossible

Earlier today, I had a very enjoyable conversation with an Israeli company that works primarily in Africa. They want to hire WritePoint to write a document, one of many, we hope. The person with whom I spoke is new to the company and wants to improve the existing documentation. Amazingly enough, perhaps even close to unique, he isn't in a rush. There are no firm deadlines - just a lot of documentation that he calls "Hebrew written in…

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September 12, 2012
Technical Writing / Training Courses

Olim and Technical Writing

Once upon a time, a company put out an advertisement that lasted all of 5 minutes before it was ridiculed out of existence. The ad said, "If you speak English, you can be a technical writer." There is so much more to being a technical writer than needing a high level of English. Yes, if you plan to write in English, your level of English must not only be mother-tongue, but perhaps even higher. You have to have…

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September 10, 2012
Uncategorized

When the Technical Writer Fails…

It happens. Sometimes technical writers don't do the job they are supposed to do. Failure can come from many different directions. Sometimes it is because a technical writer doesn't have the right background. There is a whole debate, for example, about how technical a technical writer has to be. From my experience, the main limitation is not really the technical writer's background so much as the technical writer's ability to gather information and translate it to the user's…

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September 4, 2012