http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Careers/Writing/Consulting/Technical-Writing A listing of the most recently indexed works about Careers and Writing and Consulting and Technical Writing in the field of technical communication (and technical writing). en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Careers/Writing/Consulting/Technical-Writing http://tc.eserver.org/24989.html http://tc.eserver.org/24989.html Because I am working at this job through a contract, rather than as a regular employee, there are some situations unique to my position. In the technical writing industry, many writers work on a contract basis through an agency. This type of employment is called contracting, although you may also hear it called consulting. I prefer the term contracting because I associate consultants with people whose job is to advise a company on one issue or another. That may or may not describe a particular technical writing assignment. http://tc.eserver.org/22600.html http://tc.eserver.org/22600.html How do you go about estimating the number of hours that a project would take? http://tc.eserver.org/22056.html http://tc.eserver.org/22056.html If getting into the technical writing business is a challenge, and it assuredly is, defining our employment status often poses a few questions too. Naturally, there’s the common full-time employee status we all know and understand fairly well, but when we find ourselves dealing with a technical services or technical consulting firm there can be some murky waters, and more than a few aberrations of the “traditional” understanding of the term. So, we need to define some “terms” of employment since the majority of technical writers will ultimately encounter variations. http://tc.eserver.org/22031.html http://tc.eserver.org/22031.html One of the more challenging parts of being a contractor or managing a writing project is developing an estimate of the fee or costs. Sure, there are various techniques out there, some more accurate than others, but generally no hard and fast rules applicable across the spectrum of potential assignments. Therein rest at least part of the key to doing a viable estimate, i.e., what kind of document development are you doing. http://tc.eserver.org/21684.html http://tc.eserver.org/21684.html For many technical writing companies the issue of how to manage all the associated 'non-writing' costs can be a sensitive area. Do I charge for every email? Every phone call? Where do you draw the line? What do you charge for, besides the document you produced?