Comments on: 5 Keys to a Successful Remote Writing Project

By: Weekly links roundup by Communications from DMN

Weekly links roundup by Communications from DMN — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:42:53 +0000

[...] five keys to a successful remote writing [...]

By: Technical Writing News Jan 20 – Jumping Sharks, DITA, and Link Journalism | I Heart Technical Writing

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:03:44 +0000

[...] 5 Keys to a Successful Remote Writing Project [...]

By: Edward Iglesias

Edward Iglesias — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:17:43 +0000

I am currently editing a book with contributors all around the world. I hate to say it but everything has been handled by email and with Word documents. A much as I would like to put everything up on Google Docs or Zoho the publisher needs Word Docs. Also, the support for advanced formatting and footnotes is still lacking in Google Docs.

What did keep everyone on track was a firm deadline and a contributor that spelled out number of words expected.

By: PM Hut

PM Hut — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:03:09 +0000

Managing expectations and constantly delivering (in an Agile-like approach) is the key to successfully working remotely. Traditional organizations have a prejudice on working remotely (and sometimes rightfully so), but when you constantly communicate and deliver, then you'll prove that you are as productive as if you were physically in the office. Granted, especially when it comes to technical writing, face to face communication is ideal to get all the real feedback (although communicating using tools has its own merits as well especially when misunderstandings arise, such as "I didn't say that"). PS: For those interested, here's a comprehensive article on the statement of work.

By: Bill

Bill — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:42:51 +0000

When you are out of contact, differing expectations are bound to arise. You need to have frequent, proactive voice and text communications with your supervisors and fellow workers to keep yourself informed about evolving epectations, as well as to overcome the natural tendency to be out of mind when you are out of sight.