TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Re: Doc headaches for Johnson & Johnson: Confusing instructions force recall
Subject:Re: Doc headaches for Johnson & Johnson: Confusing instructions force recall From:"Chris Christner" <cchris -at- toptechwriter -dot- us> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Sat, 4 Jun 2005 10:00:04 -0600
Third message in a row on a topic I started--HAT TRICK!
Because my first posting on this topic included an ambiguous reference to
outsourcing that prompted a question from Bonnie Granat, I decided to post
(with her kind permission) her question and my reply to forestall others
with the same question:
Bonnie wrote:
>Hi, Chris,
>
>Where does the information that they outsourced their writing staff
>come from?
>Thanks.
>
Chris wrote:
>Hi Bonnie,
>
>Sheer speculation, that's where! It's ironic that in a posting
>highlighting the perils of confusing documentation, I included
>that bit about outsourcing, which also appears to be confusing.
>
>What I meant was that the J&J story was a 7 out of 10 on the tech
>writing examples scale, but outsourcing would have made it a
>10/10. Evidently I could have been clearer (yet another time
>when I wish the list had an edit capability). Indeed, after posting
>the message and thinking about it, I realized that some readers
>would have the same question you did. So when it looked like
>the server problems yesterday had sent my original message
>to oblivion, I redid the story without mentioning outsourcing.
>In keeping with Murphy's Law, however, both finally appeared
>and there you have it.
Bonnie wrote:
>How funny. I didn't get the alternate reading of that sentence
>until I just went back to look at it. Indeed, my reading was wrong
>and there was nothing misleading about what you wrote. You didn't
>say it WAS outsourced. Good illustration of the reader projecting
>her own biases on the text!
The original posting:
> J&J is recalling all Children's Tylenol packages because of confusing
> package instructions.
>
> Details at http://www.jnj.com/news/jnj_news/20050603_104923.htm
>
> If you're a tech writer looking for compelling arguments to convince
> management of your worth, this story is a fine example of the high cost of
> bad docs--I'm sure recalling those products will cost J&J millions in lost
> sales, not to mention the liability lawsuits payouts if that's what forced
> the recall. The only thing needed to make this the perfect cautionary tale
> would be that the confusing instructions resulted from J&J outsourcing
> their writing staff ;)
>
> --Chris
New from Quadralay Corporation: WebWorks ePublisher Pro! Easily create
14 online formats, including 6 Help systems, in a project-based
workflow. Live, online demo! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help 2005 now has RoboHelp Converter and HTML Source: Author
content and configure Help in MS Word or any HTML editor. No
proprietary editor! *August release. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
