Nurturing a New Writer

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.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (1999). Careers>Mentoring>Writing>Technical Writing

Peer Mentoring as a Means of Career Development  

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.

Smith, Carole. STC Proceedings (1993). Careers>Mentoring

Providing Mentor Opportunities for Students and Professionals  

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.

Stertzbach, Lori A. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Management>Mentoring

Providing On-the-Job Writing Training to Nonwriters  

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.

Edgerton, Rebecca J. and Jill Nicholson. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>Mentoring>Writing>Technical Writing

Providing On-the-Job Writing Training to Nonwriters  

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.

Edgerton, Rebecca J. and Jill Nicholson. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>Mentoring>Writing>Technical Writing

Reaching Out—How an STC Chapter Can Support Education in its Community and Professional Development for its Membership  

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.

Voss, Daniel W. and Gail Lippincott. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Collaboration>Mentoring

Recruiting and Mentoring Usability Specialists  

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.

Shroyer, Roberta. STC Proceedings (2001). Careers>Management>Mentoring>Usability

Roles for Communication in Academia and Workplace: Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring  

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.

Tatge, Pamela K., Jack W. Jobst and John H. Carpenter. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Education>Mentoring>Workplace

Skills Are Still Not Enough  

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.

Zook, Lola M. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Mentoring

A Study of Mentoring, Communication, and Leadership from the Protege's Perspective  

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.

Farmer, Bruce W. STC Proceedings (1993). Careers>Mentoring

Training Techniques for Interns/New Hires in Information Technology  

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.

Maggiore, Jim. STC Proceedings (2002). Careers>Education>Mentoring

Trust and Respect Form the Foundation for Mentoring

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.

McCauley, Mary Ann. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Careers>Mentoring>Business Communication

What I Did for My Summer Vacation: A Case Study of a Partnership Between a Product Information Department and a Local High School   

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.

Larsen, Marc R., Anthony Pastizzo, David Robinson and Melanie Silver. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>Internships>Mentoring

What School Can't Teach You About Technical Communication: An Ethnographic Inquiry  

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.

Malone, Elizabeth L. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Education>Mentoring>Workplace

The Year of Living Dangerously; or, Not Just an Adventure, but a Job

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.

Gadzinski, Eric. ADE Bulletin (1996). Articles>Education>Mentoring

Making the Mentor Partnership Work: Part Two (For the Mentor)

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.

Chroust Ehmann, Lain. TECHWR-L (2008). Careers>Mentoring

Making the Mentor Partnership Work: Part One (for the Mentee)

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.

Chroust Ehmann, Lain. TECHWR-L (2008). Careers>Mentoring

Developing Mentoring Programs for Technical Writers

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.

Singh, Alok Kumar. Indus (2008). Careers>Mentoring>Writing>Technical Writing

Mentoring Another Writer

Some thoughts on what it takes to effectively mentor another technical communicator.

DMN Communications (2008). Careers>Mentoring>TC>Technical Writing

Mutual Mentoring: An Editorial Philosophy for a New Scholarly Journal  

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.

Kitalong, Karla Saari. Programmatic Perspectives (2009). Articles>Education>Mentoring>Collaboration

Mentoring in Technical Communication    

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.

Zimmerman, Beverly B., Paul Danette and Katherine Cook Pritchard. Technical Communication Online (2009). Careers>TC>Mentoring