http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Mentoring A listing of the most recently indexed works about Mentoring in the field of technical communication. 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/Mentoring http://tc.eserver.org/35353.html http://tc.eserver.org/35353.html Reports on an online survey of 158 technical communication teachers who were asked about their experiences with mentoring. Finds a divergence between the academic mentor's experiences in mentoring and previously reported research on the protégée's mentoring experiences. Argues that risks are inherent in mentoring and proposes a new model that acknowledges them. http://tc.eserver.org/35329.html http://tc.eserver.org/35329.html Aside from Writing Program Administration, the WPA journal, very little scholarly work about—or interest in—the topic of academic program administration has been manifested in the rhetoric-related disciplines. We believe that a mutual mentoring approach is an effective way to develop our community’s sense of the importance of program administration work as a scholarly endeavor in its own right. http://tc.eserver.org/33320.html http://tc.eserver.org/33320.html Some thoughts on what it takes to effectively mentor another technical communicator. http://tc.eserver.org/32490.html http://tc.eserver.org/32490.html Mentoring is an effective strategy that can contribute significantly to the career development of employees. It provides a cost-effective work-based learning strategy to achieve career development outcomes for individual employees. It is an effective method for the transference of professional, technical and management skills. http://tc.eserver.org/32229.html http://tc.eserver.org/32229.html When you act as a mentor, you're agreeing to serve as an ad hoc advisor and sounding board to someone less experienced in the career world than you. http://tc.eserver.org/32230.html http://tc.eserver.org/32230.html Few people enter the work world with a ready-made mentor. Instead, you need to actively pursue finding one--and take good care of her once you find her. http://tc.eserver.org/31684.html http://tc.eserver.org/31684.html By using the term 'mentoring at work,' the editors, Belle Rose Ragins and Kathy Kram, suggest that they are putting scholars in conversation with each other in their attempts to figure out what mentoring work is and how mentoring actually works. http://tc.eserver.org/31264.html http://tc.eserver.org/31264.html We are all mentors to someone at some point in our lives. And interestingly, we may not even know it at the time. I was quite surprised one sunny day to be introduced by an IABC colleague as "her mentor" when we encountered one of her co-workers as we left a restaurant. http://tc.eserver.org/30593.html http://tc.eserver.org/30593.html The Mentoring Concept is a plan for training new writers quickly in a complex environment. A mentoring team uses checklists to plan for the training of new writers. The role of each member of the mentoring team is clearly defined. The key to the success of the mentoring relationship is the effective communication of responsibilities, requirements, and progress. http://tc.eserver.org/30532.html http://tc.eserver.org/30532.html Peer mentoring is a relationship between two individuals equal in abilities and qualifications that helps each develop or refine skills to navigate in the work environment. Peer mentoring is one of several different types of career development training including hierarchical mentoring, on-the-job training, and classroom instruction. Management can use peer mentor relationships to effectively and efficiently promote employee development and team-building. http://tc.eserver.org/30378.html http://tc.eserver.org/30378.html This paper presents the results of a survey of leaders in a variety of occupations concerning their mentoring experiences as proteges. Proteges primarily sought friendship and support, guidance and advice, and increased self-confidence and self-esteem, followed by job-related skills and professional insights. In general, proteges learned or got these things, although many also noted learning 'people management' skills. Direct, one-on-one discussions were used most often to communicate, while observation of role modeling ranked high for learning. Integrity and honesty were the most highly sought characteristics in a mentor, followed by willingness and ability to mentor, and then by interpersonal skills. http://tc.eserver.org/30236.html http://tc.eserver.org/30236.html Electronic mentoring uses e-mail to bring the academic and business communities together without the boundaries of geography or time. Through an electronic mentoring program professionals gain insights into the academic realm from students and educators as well as give students advice based upon their experiences as communicators in business. This paper is part of the 'Expand Your Learning Community: Electronic Mentoring' panel; it focuses on the benefits to businesses. knowledge? http://tc.eserver.org/30130.html http://tc.eserver.org/30130.html The Unisys Mission Viejo facility and the Capistrano Valley High School, both in Mission Viejo, California, were able to achieve a mutually beneficial partnership when an English teacher (Anthony Pastizzo) with an unusual perspective on learning and a Product Information manager (David Robinson) with a strong commitment to education got together. Mr. Pastizzo's summer internship in the Unisys Product Information department led to high school student internships in many departments. Other positive results may also follow. The internships also produced some unexpected positive results within the Unisys facility. http://tc.eserver.org/29420.html http://tc.eserver.org/29420.html Technical communicators represent one of the most mobile groups of professionals I'm aware of, with some sources claiming that the average time between changing jobs is as low as four years. This means that many of us will soon find ourselves in the position of working with newcomers, whether permant staff or 'temps,' and this means we may face the problem of how to mentor or supervise someone new to our workplace. This article discusses how to work with someone who already has the basic training, but is nonetheless naive in the ways of your particular organization. http://tc.eserver.org/28751.html http://tc.eserver.org/28751.html A mentoring program encourages employees; can target potential managers and specific employees who need assistance; facilitates implementation of corporate strategies; requires a coordinator to administer the program, usually a person found within HR who spends no more than 1 day per week on mentoring activities. http://tc.eserver.org/28162.html http://tc.eserver.org/28162.html In a profession that does not have clear discipline boundaries or many built-in mentorships with professors and internships, most professionals in technical communication depend on fellow professionals as mentors. http://tc.eserver.org/27390.html http://tc.eserver.org/27390.html What mentoring is, and how it is different from consulting, training, or educating. http://tc.eserver.org/27113.html http://tc.eserver.org/27113.html The mentor relationship has been called the 'pinnacle of work relationships.' A mentor is more than a peer, more than a coach, even more than a sponsor. Mentors typically have influence within the organization or community. They use this influence to empower their protègès. The mentor relationship is really a partnership--the mentor provides guidance and opportunities, the protègè provides energy and a fresh perspective. http://tc.eserver.org/26277.html http://tc.eserver.org/26277.html As a designer, there are days when it's tempting to just churn out something that looks nice, without any thought given to the creative process. To keep a fresh outlook on our work and maintain a true sense of purpose, we have to keep up our educational process. A designer should never lose his or her passion for learning. http://tc.eserver.org/24692.html http://tc.eserver.org/24692.html In an effort to promote and encourage an interest in the field of technical communication through academic/professional relationships, the New York Metro Chapter has developed a mentoring pilot program with Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) in Madison, New Jersey. The chapter, along with Dr. Michael B. Goodman, Director of FDU’s M.A. program in Corporate and Organizational Communication, coordinated their efforts to select members who can serve as role models for students interested in this field. http://tc.eserver.org/24424.html http://tc.eserver.org/24424.html While it is obvious that a trainee technical editor needs to learn editorial skills and techniques, it is less obvious but not less important for the trainee to acquire certain attitudes in and toward his or her work as an editor. Viewpoints and work patterns that characterize experienced editors provide a basis for concepts appropriate to training a novice editor. They also provide a basis for comparing changes, over time, in what a technical editor needs to know, and how those needs have been affected by developments in the job context of technical editors over the past 30 years. http://tc.eserver.org/24388.html http://tc.eserver.org/24388.html In the past few years, our chapter has presented three or four Saturday workshops per year, including the Career Day workshop. (We offer the Saturday workshops as an alternative to the usual monthly chapter dinner meeting.) We developed our Career Day program with two tracks—one for novice technical communicators (and curious laypeople), and another for persons with some experience in the field. Initially, we cooperated with a smaller, nearby chapter with many of the same employment issues. http://tc.eserver.org/24387.html http://tc.eserver.org/24387.html The Silicon Valley Chapter STC began its mentoring program in 1999. We developed the program in response to the many requests we were receiving from students, members, and practitioners in the local area for mentors within the local STC chapter. I hope to help other chapters meet their members' needs by describing how the Silicon Valley chapter established its program. http://tc.eserver.org/24325.html http://tc.eserver.org/24325.html Professional communicators today must often work with writing done by coworkers who have little or no formal writing training. This situation opens a long-term opportunity for professional development'from negotiating with management to developing tactful-but-truthful mentoring methods for the nonwriters. The mentor will develop skills in goal setting, curriculum development, and possibly even classroom-style teaching. This interactive workshop will lead participants through a 10-step process for becoming a successful writing skills mentor and give successful tips and techniques for evaluating and attacking writing problems. http://tc.eserver.org/24238.html http://tc.eserver.org/24238.html Professional communicators today must often work with writing done by coworkers who have little or no formal writing training. This situation opens a long-term opportunity for professional development–from negotiating with management to developing tactful-buttruthful mentoring methods for the nonwriters. The mentor will develop skills in goal setting, curriculum development, and possibly even classroom-style teaching. This interactive workshop will lead participants through a 10-step process for becoming a successful writing skills mentor and give successful tips and techniques for evaluating and attacking writing problems. This workshop is an expanded version of the 90 minute workshop given last year to rave reviews. http://tc.eserver.org/23605.html http://tc.eserver.org/23605.html Successful managers increasingly use coaching to help employees improve performance. Coaching is a better model than counseling because it presupposes that the employee is capable of making improvements. Coaching also helps maintain a good relationships between the manager and employees. However, coaching cannot be a 'pure' coaching relationship when the manager has supervisory responsibilities for the employee. Still, successful coaching can result in a win/win outcome for both the employee and the company, even in a problem situation. http://tc.eserver.org/23604.html http://tc.eserver.org/23604.html Choosing a mentor or mentee can be a powerful moment in your professional life. Making the mentoring relationship work is not always easy and requires time and dedication from both parties. This article will define and explore the mentoring relationship, listing key factors for success. http://tc.eserver.org/23552.html http://tc.eserver.org/23552.html Mentorships can contribute significantly to the career success of technical communicators. Effective mentorships are established and maintained by finding the right persons to be mentors through active listening, careful observation, personal analysis, willingness to be influenced, coached and taught, and allowing mentoring relationships to emerge over time. Such mentorships benefit both individual technical communicators by furthering their selfdevelopment and careers, and they benefit their corporations by enhancing morale and productivity. http://tc.eserver.org/23348.html http://tc.eserver.org/23348.html Mentored teaching experience helps, especially in composition, business and technical writing, and introductory courses of the kind junior faculty members at small schools are typically required to teach. http://tc.eserver.org/21514.html http://tc.eserver.org/21514.html Based on the need for mentoring, we developed a multimedia configuration that fostered one-on-one connections. In this study, we examine these connections in terms of what strategies mentors use when mentoring and how mentors respond to students. The two case studies indicate that neither of the subjects took full advantage of the multimedia system or the environments in which it functioned: neither mentor chose to manage the computer screen so that they could adequately see their student or chose to monitor the environments in a manner beneficial to their students. However, mentors tended to differentiate between weak and strong writers in this environment. http://tc.eserver.org/21391.html http://tc.eserver.org/21391.html A successful mentoring relationship benefits those involved through increased confidence and a sense of direction. The relationship provides a risk-free learning environment in which to offer career guidance. Mentoring relationships can develop between individuals within an organization, between individuals in two different organizations, or between students and STC professionals. http://tc.eserver.org/19907.html http://tc.eserver.org/19907.html The role of mentoring in career development is changing. This paper examines how and why these changes are happening and what management can do to encourage mentoring as an employee development technique. Mentoring provides career benefits as well as psychological benefits for both mentors and protégés, and can facilitate a working environment that encourages individual growth. http://tc.eserver.org/19797.html http://tc.eserver.org/19797.html Because the workplace is a different kind of discourse community than the classroom, young professionals are unprepared for such workplace realities as the required use of a bureaucratic style, fragmented and reiterative research and review, and a lack of clear direction. Organizations should explicitly address these training needs through providing effective writing examples, writing-focused orientation, and mentoring in communications. http://tc.eserver.org/19690.html http://tc.eserver.org/19690.html There are many advantages to having mentors: They can teach you new skills, impart their knowledge, and help you increase your self-confidence. Having a mentor, or several of them, can help on all fronts. In fact, in a 2000 survey by The Creative Group, 94 percent of executives polled said having a mentor is important for professionals just beginning their careers. http://tc.eserver.org/19479.html http://tc.eserver.org/19479.html The author’s company is continually looking for people to add to our professional staff of usability and documentation specialists. To overcome the challenges posed by geographically distributed offices, and to ensure new hires can become productive quickly, Tec-Ed takes a structured approach to screening, qualifying, and selecting new hires and then uses a hands-on, building-block approach to train them in our usability methodologies. http://tc.eserver.org/18843.html http://tc.eserver.org/18843.html This paper provides discussion and recommendations for designing and implementing an internship program for undergraduate students majoring in the computer science and/or information technology arenas. These same techniques can also be used to acclimate new hires to the technological environment within your company. The paper uses the internship program used by IBM’s Disbursements Application Support area (i.e., payroll and travel) as a reference and also discusses the importance of having enterprise-wide support in supporting interns and new hires. Throughout this paper, “intern” and “new hire” can be used interchangeably. Topics discussed in this paper include 1) Campus interviewing, 2) Assignment of technical mentors, and 3) Sample code for selected applications. http://tc.eserver.org/18218.html http://tc.eserver.org/18218.html Electronic mentoring establishes relationships that might not otherwise exist. You have the opportunity to participate in professional community service, remain current on communication issues, and develop a future employment pool. http://tc.eserver.org/18210.html http://tc.eserver.org/18210.html The education of technical writers follows a vertical path, as discussed by panelists who represent three stops along that path. A new teacher of technical writing discusses moving from teaching basic writing to teaching more experienced and critical students. A professor who is in charge of new teachers discusses how he helps them meet the needs of students who demand more from their teachers. A mentor from industry discusses how she guides college graduates through the transition to professional writer and helps experienced writers continue their education on the job. http://tc.eserver.org/15168.html http://tc.eserver.org/15168.html Describes mentor-student relationship from both perspectives, describing the experiences of a corporate mentor and mentee and the changes in positions for writers that came with tools migration (from Ventura Publisher to FrameMaker) and new writing standards and guidelines. http://tc.eserver.org/14727.html http://tc.eserver.org/14727.html In the first article of a new section of Intercom devoted to students, Brown recounts her experience as a novice technical writer relying on a mentor for professional guidance. http://tc.eserver.org/14755.html http://tc.eserver.org/14755.html Von Haas examines techniques for helping new technical writers achieve success in the profession. http://tc.eserver.org/14544.html http://tc.eserver.org/14544.html Mentorships provide an opportunity for students and new professionals to increase their career awareness by interacting with experienced technical communicators. STC chapters can develop mentor programs that facilitate this important professional development activity. http://tc.eserver.org/13932.html http://tc.eserver.org/13932.html The TECHWR-L mentoring program is designed to match students or people starting out in the profession with those interested in being a mentor. http://tc.eserver.org/13466.html http://tc.eserver.org/13466.html A mentor helps you master the unspoken rules of corporate America. If you are energetic and demonstrate initiative, a mentor welcomes the opportunity to assist your growth. To accomplish your mentoring goals, define what you want to achieve and then select a mentor. A successful mentoring relationship requires nourishing to maintain—you must value your mentor's time and demonstrate appreciation. When you no longer require your mentor's guidance, you can end the mentoring phase of the relationship with honesty and appreciation. http://tc.eserver.org/13235.html http://tc.eserver.org/13235.html A chapter-level education committee can provide a valuable resource both to STC chapter members and to local educational institutions. In this paper, which accompanies a progression on the same subject, the Orlando Chapter’s Education Committee describes six initiatives it has pursued to advance education and professional development within its sphere of influence: (1) developing procedures and avenues of communication to govern its own operations, (2) instituting and administering a scholarship program, (3) conducting a high school writing competition, (4) providing instructional support for secondary education in the community, (5) instituting mentoring programs, and (6) supporting and enhancing professional development. http://tc.eserver.org/13077.html http://tc.eserver.org/13077.html Creating a mentoring program for technical writers requires quite a bit of coordination. http://tc.eserver.org/13036.html http://tc.eserver.org/13036.html A manager, especially a more hard-nosed type, may pick up a writer's draft and attack the writer, circling mistakes with red ink, demanding rewrites, and peppering the work with negative remarks. If the manager is uptight, it doesn't take very long for subordinates to become uptight also. And being too managerial may end up creating an adversarial relationship, which can thwart the writer's professional growth. On the other hand, a supportive and nurturing fellow worker -- a mentor, in other words -- can help create a positive and productive team environment. Mentors may have to be patient with their writers at times, but that patience should pay off, long-term, in results and accomplishments. When you find ways to make your people look good, they will in turn make you look good.