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This may work well for me because I know almost all of the SMEs and have
for years.
They also know (from experience and from the information I put in my
cover memo)
that they don't have to come up with polished writing--just enough to
give me the
necessary information.
And you are absolutely correct when you say that not all things work for
everyone.
Everyone must develop the method that works best for him or her, and in
his or her
environment. The preparation is at least as important as the method, and
different
methods work for different people. It's something I recommend trying to
see if it
will work, but I also believe in being flexible, and coming up with
something that
works well for all concerned.
Jo
Tom Murrell wrote:
> Under the heading of not all things work for everyone, I note the
following
> snippet.
>
> --- Jo Baer <jbaer -at- mailbox1 -dot- tcfbank -dot- com> wrote:
> >
> > Actually, I don't interview SMEs in person all that often. I use a
question
> > and
> > answer template that I developed (took about ten minutes) and submit
written
> > questions along with any relevant written materials, such as a
project
> > requirements document or a draft of a manual chapter. I make my
written
> > questions as specific as possible, and often give a page (and
sometimes
> > paragraph) reference so the SME can go back to the document in
question.
>
> I'm not criticizing this method, especially if it works, but I've not
had
> success submitting written questions to SMEs and getting responses
(let alone
> timely responses). My experience has been that SMEs resent the extra
assignment
> and think the writer is trying to get them to do the writer's work for
the
> writer.
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