Wednesday

Peer Reviews

One of my projects for our upcoming release is a revamp of an existing user manual. We received feedback about content that was confusing, and my manager and I decided that the best way to fix this problem was to completely overhaul the user manual. I've added quite a bit of content to the manual to fill in the gaps that my manager and I identified.

Before I submit the user manual to my manager for final review, I want to make sure that I address any smaller problems. So, I have another technical writer do a peer review for me. During the peer review, the other writer can tell me if there are any holes in the content and whether the document is usable.

Attend a Brown Bag Session

Today, I attend a brown bag session given by two other technical writers, Robin and Neerja. A brown bag session is a 45-minute presentation about something that other writers might find interesting or useful. For example, I've seen brown bags about tools that other writers have developed, a writer's experience working at our R&D facility in China, programming languages such as Perl, and so on. We even have brown bags about a department member's hobby, such as jewelry making.

Today's brown bag is about interviewing potential technical writer candidates on college campuses. Because I am going on campus this Thursday, I attend the brown bag session for a refresher about what to expect on campus.

Our company focuses on behavioral-based interviewing because past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior. In our interviews, we don't ask questions such as, "What can you bring to the organization?" Instead, we ask a candidate about a specific situation and see how the candidate responded to that situation. In the brown bag, Robin and Neerja provide examples of strong responses.