RRC Archives

I am taking an intensive technical writing course this quarter. My main assignment is to outline a technical manual and write one chapter, specifically

Our course project is to construct the outline for an “instruction manual” and fill in about 20 pages of it (or about 5,000-6,000 words—words might be a better measure if you plan lots of graphics).

I'm thinking of doing a climbing instruction manual. Would you chuffers be willing to advise me along the way? We are supposed to have someone to consult for expert technical advise. I will refer to my library of climbing books, but would love to be able to run stuff by you guys - experts for feedback on correctness and everyone for feedback on clarity.

I'm not sure what topic I will select for my project, but was thinking of self-rescue techniques since I would like to burn those into my brain. However they may be too complicated for the instructor to understand, so I may go with basic ropework. Ideas?

How about basic ropework with a section on some more advanced skills?

It probably wouldn't be the best idea to write about a subject your not experienced with. To some extent, your going to learn new stuff along the way, but if you haven't had any practice with self-rescue its going to be difficult to write about it unless you plagerize alot of the material. You should be able to come up with some neat ideas of your own about climbing, Sandy. There is a shit load of stuff in climbing that can be broken down into deeper detail. For example, footwork. Is there a book dedicated to footwork? Some training manuals... or go with your ropework and break it down.

One thing I always found handy when I was writing about climbing for one of my classes was that I'm a member of alot of climbing forums. I always found myself doing searches on the forum sloths. Pretty cool when you think about it.

later,
Andy

You know what would be cool is if you could get someone to do illustrations for you... or maybe you can do them yourself? I know I can't draw for shit. Anyhow, it would make your paper/report/book/chapter look very professional and original.

Hey SAndy! I'm a doc developer so I can help you, but I know nothing about climbing. Just all the other things.

Meadows wrote:I'm a doc developer so I can help you,

Cool, I was looking for somewhere to park my boat.

What do you use Meadows? Quark or InDesign?

I'll write the Cliff's Notes.

Ch.1) Climb up. Don't fall.

RoboHelp, Word, Dreamweaver, Snag It, HTML, FrameMaker, RUP. Quark is for copy editors.

Quark is for publishing and designers. You said you create documents, I thought you ment books, mags, newspapers, posters, et al.. All the local newspapers and big time mags (Rock & Ice for sure) use Quark. Some switched to InDesign after the 2.0 version came out. If you learn Quark I'm sure you'll find it easier then the programs you have listed...

lordjim_2001 wrote:How about basic ropework with a section on some more advanced skills?

This is what I'm leaning toward.

andy_lemon wrote:It probably wouldn't be the best idea to write about a subject your not experienced with. To some extent, your going to learn new stuff along the way, but if you haven't had any practice with self-rescue its going to be difficult to write about it unless you plagerize alot of the material. You should be able to come up with some neat ideas of your own about climbing, Sandy.

Andy, I have taken two classes in self-rescue, so I'm familiar (I just need to practice more frequently. WAY more frequently...). After giving this a little more thought, I've concluded that self-rescue would really be graphics-intensive since it can be so complicated, even to climbers, so it's not an option for this assignment. I like your idea about doing something original. I'll have to give that some thought though, because unless I make stuff up, I'm drawing a total blank. Whatever I write cannot rely too heavily on illustrations, but I will use some digital photos.

Meadows - thanks, darlin'!