Re: Nature of writers/editors (Was: Typos of the week!)

[Jo Baer <jbaer -at- mailbox1 -dot- tcfbank -dot- com>]

OK, taking it back to our own workplaces, what would you do in this situation?

I was working on a project involving a new product delivered on our company's Web page. Even after the copy was approved, pending blessing from our legal department, there were spelling, punctuation, and usage errors. When I pointed these out, I was told by the leader of my area of the project that that aspect of the project was none of my business, I was simply to write
the documentation. My contention was that if it's in my power to help the company avoid embarassing itself publicly, that's part of my job.

Fortunately, I have a good relationship with the analyst and programmer who worked on the project as well, and they were happy to get feedback from me, even if we had to do it secretly. (We even had code names, "Bigfoot" and "Deep Throat.") The final product was free of mis-spellings and other verbal gaffes.

The Other Jo on the List


--
Jo Baer
Senior Technical Writer
Minneapolis, Minnesota


Weakness Through Strength

Fanatics may defend a point of view
so strongly as to prove it can't be true.

                       Piet Hein


Jo Francis Byrd wrote:

> Once on an airplane trip, I sat next to a guy polishing his PowerPoint
> presentation for the meeting he was flying to attend. I had to force
> myself to look away from it at something else - anything else. I wanted,
> SO bad, to yank the laptop out of his hands and correct grammar,
> punctuation, wording....EVERYthing about that presentation.


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