Re: Is this too Offensive for a manual?

["Anameier, Christine A - Eagan, MN" <christine -dot- a -dot- anameier -at- usps -dot- gov>]

Keith wrote:
> So what trends would these icky nasty lazy meter readers produce?
> * Incompetent meter readers would produce ERRORS. So some verbiage
> regarding USER ERROR might be appropriate.
> * Lazy meter readers' efforts could produce ERRORS and loss in
> PRODUCTIVITY.
> * Crooked meter readers' efforts would show up as FRAUD.

This is an excellent point. ERRORS, PRODUCTIVITY, and FRAUD are the
things that matter in this case, not the personal attributes of the
meter readers. The audience knows what those terms mean; the terms are
not mealy-mouthed or ambiguous. They address the important points
without unnecessarily injecting hostility into the documentation.

The idea is to guard against errors, prevent fraud, and encourage
productivity--presumably to improve the bottom line. Talking about these
things in terms of "incompetent, lazy and crooked" workers makes it
sound like a moral crusade instead of standard business policy. Ick.

Christine





^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP FOR FRAMEMAKER TRIAL NOW AVAILABLE!

RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.