The Journal of Universal Rejection
If you feel you need practice handling rejection, I’d like to suggest that you submit to The Journal of Universal Rejection. They accept nothing. Everything is rejected.
If you feel you need practice handling rejection, I’d like to suggest that you submit to The Journal of Universal Rejection. They accept nothing. Everything is rejected.
Still haven’t solved the doubled titles problem, mostly because I’ve been busily restoring the computer here (which is up to 80-85% stable and reconfigured).
Here’s a fun game for project managers and would-be project managers. Schedule all the resources to maximize efficiency and minimize expenses.
All of the reasons for planning in the preceding post are summed up neatly by Magid’s Law:
“It doesn’t matter how you get there if you don’t know where you’re going.”– Paul Magid
Paul Magid is one of the Flying Karamazov Brothers and coined this profound bit of wisdom 30 years ago. It’s the best justification for planning I’ve ever heard.
That’s all I need to say about this.
From Bonni Graham:
The 6 stages of UI design review (with apologies to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross)
Or maybe this is just me….
While I’m talking about cover letters, I want to relate a story about cover letters that I think you’ll enjoy.
Back in the early 90s at one company where I had a couple dozen writers working for me, I had been talking to someone at professional meetings who wanted to work for me. He was a great guy and I thought I’d like to have him on the team. A few months later, I had a slot and said “Now’s the time! Send your paper in.” He did, with a cover letter, that opened with the line (including the bold as I’ve shown it):
“Dear John:
Enclosed please find my resume for consideration for a position as a Tecnical Writer.”
I stopped reading right there. He’s a great guy who would’ve been an addition to the team, but, yuh know, I just couldn’t.
I showed it around to a bunch of my staff. They thought that that was pretty good, too. I phoned him that afternoon and explained that I was terribly, terribly sorry but I just couldn’t hire him right then but that I wanted him to reapply. He was much chagrined but he understood.
The rimshot on this is that I called an old friend who was the Tech Pubs Manager at our direct competitor and related the story (without names, of course). She told me about one that she’d gotten a few years before for an editing slot that contained the immortal line:
“And, in addition, my poofreading skills are excellent.”
Apparently, that letter went up on their departmental bulletin board for a couple years for all to admire.
Moral of the story: You cannot proofread your materials enough.
Now that you’ve seen the basics of how to become an author, I’ll shortly be posting a series on how to write a winning book proposal for a non-fiction book (and some thoughts on developing ideas for books).
In the meantime, I’d like to post something fun and worthwhile from Zen College Life on 85 Reasons To Be Thankful For Librarians.
C. Responsibilities of Consultant
Consultant shall observe and abide by all laws, rules, and regulations of the federal, state, city, and municipal governments (and subdivisions or agencies thereof) as they apply to the work described herein and shall assume all liability for loss by reason of neglect, error, mistake, omission, or violation of such laws, rules, and regulations.
Consultant agrees to marry the daughter/son (as appropriate) of the poorest member of the Engineer’s clan and to kill all enemies opposing the proposed project. Choice of weapons and means of burial are determined by the Owner in accordance to Section 25-A. This Agreement to indemnify and save harmless the Owner and the Engineers shall extend to include all expenses incidental to subsequent investigation, defense, and settlement of such claims (including claims to Workmen’s Compensation) of any person or corporation, including claims of the Owner, Engineer’s clan, or the agents or employees of each of them. Trophies taken from the bodies of the dead found at the site of the project or taken in field studies will remain property of the Owner.
The following lovely little nugget is from Documentia, a tech writing firm in Ontario. #2, 6, 12, and 16 are my personal faves.
Klingon Technical Writers
The top 16 things likely to be overheard if you had Klingon technical writers working on your documentation team:
Go to this website and click the red button. Have your sound up enough to hear. (This is totally safe for work and might even be helpful during a meeting.) You can select from a couple dozen different sounds if the default isn’t quite what you need.
And the default noise made me think of a really silly joke to start the week on a good note:
Q: What do you get when you throw two bass drums and a cymbal down a well?
A: “Da-BOMP-shhhhhh!!!”