Desperately Seeking Documentation?

Interrobang asks: "I'm a longtime Slashdot reader, who isn't a programmer. I'm one of programmers' symbiotic (parasitic?) life-forms -- a freelance technical writer. I'd like to know from the programmers, IT managers, and similar others in the crowd: If you were searching the Internet for a technical writer, what kinds of search terms would you use? What sites would you check? Where and how would you start looking?"

Why not post on...

[afabbro]

...rentacoder, elancer, etc.? Or if you want to hire perm, put your resume (and search) on Dice, Monster, etc.?

Is there some rocket science I'm missing here, or is this just the usual lame Ask Slashdot from Cliff?

Seriously...

[aphoenix]

Well, the first places to check are all the old standards: Workopolis, Monster, LinkedIn. I would also try Orkut now, but I'm a hardcore Google Fanboy (though the countdown to evil began a while ago). The search terms - well, that's easy. I'd try "technical writer" first and nothing second. If someone cannot make their resume found when I type "technical writer" then they aren't that technical and I'm not hiring them.

The second place to check would be any local sites that may post classifieds-ish things.

So here's my general answer to the questions? Where do I check? The place that resumes get posted.

Of course, next time you have a question like this, I suggest that you jfgi [justfuckinggoogleit.com]...

LDP

[jnik]

Assuming I were attempting to pull a technical writer out of the vague Internettal æther instead of taking the more conventional route of putting up an ad for the job, I'd start by checking the Linux Documentation Project [tldp.org]. If a particularly well-written HOWTO (no jokes please) stuck out, I'd know how well the author could write without an editor, that zie could bring a project to completion, and that zie enjoyed writing at least to the point of producing something on a volunteer basis. Then I'd look at other online documentation, well-written technical books with short author lists, etc.

I'd be looking for technical writing, in the flesh, not "technical writing" as a search term. You'll need some sort of portfolio or writing sample if you make it to an application anyhow.

Be proactive

[spyrochaete]

Make a web page. State your areas of specialty. Give a mission statement and post samples of your work. Explain how technical writers equal cost savings and work safety. Explain how hiring a professional technical writer can save money in client tech support by ensuring quality and palatability of the prose and layout. Give examples of places you've worked and how you improved their workflow. Ask former clients kindly for testimonials. Associate yourself with a guild like the STC [stc.org] or a local faction since this is often the first place prospective employers will look (or at least troll their job listings). It's a fact of life, however, that the people who need tech writers the most don't know that they need them. It sucks, but nothing beats cold calling business that reflect your specific areas of expertise. Throwing a few bucks to Google AdWords couldn't hurt either.

Check out Managing Your Documentation Projects [amazon.com] by Joanne Hackos (or just read the first few pages [amazon.com]) for some great selling points to quote to potential clients.

Why hire a technical writer?

[Ark42]

As a programmer, I admit that actually writing the documentation can be the most annoying and time-consuming part of creating a finished program, and I can procrastinate forever, adding tiny features to the program instead of spending my time writing boring English, but why should I hire a technical writer? When my progam is more-or-less done, I am the only person on the planet who knows how every single feature works, what all the hidden shortcut keys or shift/control+mouse click operations may do, and what the whole expected behaviour of any option is supposed to be.

How could I possibly explain all of this to a technical writer to have documentation written, without just writing the documentation myself? Sure there are comments in the code, but they're not going to help write a idiot-friendly tutorial very much. Sure I have some planning scratch-pad-like text files or paintbrush image doodles of my ideas, but they might not fully represent all of the features, or even a particular feature in their final existing form anymore.

I really loathe writing documentation, but unless the person helping my write it is involved in the entire program creating phase, sitting right there beside me the entire time, watching all of the features evolve, I don't think they'll be able to write complete help files.