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I think we'd all agree that content is more important than format, and it's more important to be technically correct than grammatically correct. Assuming you can't do both, that is.
But I suspect that, as TWs, some of us are pickier when it comes to dismissing non-content errors because they lead us to doubt the content. For example, when I read a document that consistently uses "you're" instead of "your," part of me says it doesn't matter but another part of me says "If they couldn't even bother to use Word's grammar checker, what else did they not bother with?"
When I was 16, my dad took me shopping for my first car. After checking out a car that was FSBO, he asked if I had noticed a radio knob was missing. I said yes, I saw that, but I've seen replacement knobs at Wal-Mart so I know it will be really easy and inexpensive to fix. And he said yes, that's right, it *is* really easy to fix. And if the owner didn't fix the cheap and easy things, are you confident that she took care of the more difficult and expensive things?
To some people, a readable format and correct grammar and spelling are just pinstripes. They can make a product look nice, but they're purely optional and have nothing to do with how well it works. But *sometimes*, to me, they're radio knobs, and if they're missing, they make me wonder how much care went into the entire document. So, what about the rest of us? What sets off your alarm? Are there any non-content errors that would cause you to distrust the content?
And, of course, some of us also realize that being technically correct doesn't make a document usable. I could design the greatest widget on earth and dump everything I know about it into one huge document. I could explain how I built the widget, discuss its molecular structure, and describe exactly how the laws of physics affect it. But if you can't find the step that says "how to turn on the widget," it doesn't matter how correct it is, because you can't use it.
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Tracy Boyington tracy_boyington -at- okcareertech -dot- org
Oklahoma Department of Career & Technology Education
Stillwater, OK http://www.okcareertech.org/cimc
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>>> Katherine Turner <katherinet -at- csl -dot- com> 07/23/01 01:22PM >>>
I have to agree with Richard Smith and Andrew Plato, content is more
important than format.
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