Professional Document
| Resume | Leadership | Practical Experience and Service | Teaching and Training |
| Information Technology | Scholarly Argument | Professional Document | Miscellanea |
Contents
- Institutional Need for Documentation
- Union Gospel Mission Youth Reach Out Center Library Project: Master Plan
- Washington Center for the Book: Reading Group Toolkits
- What I've Learned about Creating Professional Documents
Institutional Need for Documentation
The most common reason for developing professional documentation is because there is an institutional need for the work. Professional documents are meant to be functional. They serve purposes ranging from providing general information on what types of resources are available for a particular field of study (commonly called pathfinders) to developing complex organizational schemes such as master plans, constitutions and library policy manuals. Often professional documentation is not solely generated by an individual, but by a committee, department or other corporate body. My experience in developing professional documentation reflects that.
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Union Gospel Mission Youth Reach Out Center Library Project: Master Plan
When the UGM YROC Library project began, we had no idea of what the library was meant to do, and little direction on where to begin. Our team decided that the most productive place to begin was to develop a master plan for the library that would address most necessary incorporation issues. We talked about what major concerns should be addressed such as the institutional mission, objectives and goals, what types of policies should we have, were we going to have an online catalog of our book collection or not? We had to address these issues and present them to our contact person at the Union Gospel Mission in a way that not only answered these questions, but also had a professional appearance. To accomplish this we each decided to take ownership of a portion of the research and writing, and everyone would return his or her portion to the project leader, me. Apart from my research into cataloging practices I also served as chief editor of the master plan to bring out a coherent and unified whole document. This method proved as succesful as the individual who took ownership. Some portions were delayed and as a result the entire project was pushed back until the last individual had reported. The final document was then reviewed by everyone in the team and additional comments on individual portions were discussed in a finalization meeting.
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Washington Center for the Book: Reading Group Toolbox
Developing reading group toolboxes for the Washington Center for the Book (WCFB) was a very different task from developing the master plan. WCFB develops pamphlet length supplements to accompany the books in their reading group collection to facilitate discussion. There is a fairly standard format to each of the "toolboxes" consisting of a brief description of a novel, it's place in the author's body of work, some information about the author, a list of 10 or more questions about the book, and a suggested further reading list. I had the opportunity to put together two toolboxes: The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin, and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. The final copies were edited by the staff at WCFB and will be available on my reader's advisory website in the near future.
- Washington Center for the Book
- The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
- My Reader's Advisory Website
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What I've Learned about Creating Professional Documents
- That distributed work modes can be effective, provided that the individuals involved in the creation have enough time and energy to participate fully.
- There should be one individual responsible for editing the final project, to provide unity and coherence to a lengthy document.
- Often professional documents are bound by standards of printing or previous design.
- Sometimes you just have to stop talking and go for economy of language.
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