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Subject:Re: Politeness in editing? From:kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 11 Dec 2001 08:21:50 -0700
I got the impression that the invoke/relocate issue was in regard to a
PEER edit. In my experience, this is when a pool of writers of roughly
equal rank or seniority edit each other's work as a quality control
measure.
If you're not "officially" the team's editor, and are not the submitting
writer's superior, I think an extra amount of diplomacy IS required.
You're telling an equal, a colleague, what you think of their work. It's a
touchy area, so proceed with caution. Your tact will pay off in the long
run, whereas unduly harsh criticism will not easily be forgotten.
If, on the other hand, you ARE the boss and/or the regular editor of the
team's work, I agree that you can't spend all your time trying to placate
your writers. I think you do need to spend some time initially developing
a rapport with the writers, and finding an effective way to communicate
your writing likes and dislikes. Once that has been established, you
should be able to edit relatively tersely, using tact as your discretion
dictates.
Bottom line: My boss can TELL me what to do. I think my colleagues should
SUGGEST potential improvements, as I would for them.
- Keith Cronin
_____________________________________
Technical writing is easy. Except for GOOD technical writing, which is
like, kind of hard.
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