Hey Tess do you blog? I find Myspace to be really useful for blogging. I had a boss once that said I should journal, but I really hated writing and when I did, I felt like I complained alot. But with modern technology the way that it is, I enjoy typing up all those random, insignificant thoughts that run through my head. And sometimes I find I have something to say that makes sense! ha ha. I should do something like a gratitude journal, when I used to think of all the things I was gratful for though, it would always be the same stuff. Kids, home, trees, nature, I don't know, I got stuck on that one.
But anyway, it's just an idea for you to utilize myspace, it also has a calendar.
I might, although right now I am in the middle of writting a technical paper for work on data modeling standards. It's up to 50+ pages, and will be around 100 by the time that I am done, and it is due for the initial publishing for review and feedback on Friday morning. After that I begin on the programming standards document.... I believe that I am going to lose my mind... Thank goodness I am working from home tomorrow, it's been a tough week, with this being my first one back on-site after being out for six weeks for the surgery, so I'm swamped and almost overwhelmed.
I find technical writing very easy, because it is very structured, and totally non-floofy, as long as I understand the topic I have to write about......
The technical topic is data modeling standards and concepts in data warehousing. All table and database related components including how to design a good database, how to use the software, and the database specific components. I have to write it for a wide audience, from business partners, to technical team staff, so it needs to have several different layers of complexity.
At this job, I do a fair amount of technical writing, but my main focus is doing the actual jobs, and cross-training others. In my 12 years in IT, I have had many different jobs, that have required different levels of writing.
Seven years ago, I started training to become a project manager in IT, it's called PMI (Project Management Institute), I am a few courses away from being certified as a PMP (Project Management Professional). There is extensive authoring of documents in that role, and they train you how to create them, so I leverage that training. I also used to write end-user manuals, years ago.
Technical writing is much easier than regular writing, related to structure and even paragraph components. There are also many screen shots, and imbedded visuals.
No I'm very impressed. I'm very much a techy at heart. I love creating databases too, but it's been years since I've been in that field. I guess that's why I'm online so much and always interested in the latest stuff! IT is a great field! Like I said, I've Impressed!
