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Re: Formatting Docs On-The-Fly

Subject: Re: Formatting Docs On-The-Fly
From: Al Geist <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 13:57:28 -0500



Tony Markos wrote:

(If) I have "holes" in my understanding of the
subject matter, I can try and hide such by switching
to unnumbered (read: often non sequential), large
paragraphs written in puffed up, vague,
non-active-voice language.
Rationale: If they can't establish the flow of it
and/or get specific with it, then maybe they will not
be able t see the holes in it. Happened all the time
at the DOD agency which I contracted at. (Often times
such text was prefixed with a statement like "The
procedure to do X is simple.")

It didn't happen when I did gov't contracts, because we had an excellent editor who would quickly eliminate anyone who tried this from the team. I followed this same philosophy whether I was running a department, the lone writer or contracting. Most writers are professional enough to ask questions instead of trying to cover holes in their material. The ones that aren't need to be culled from the profession and quickly, especially when they're wasting my tax money.

--

Al Geist, Geist Associates
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URL: www.geistassociates.com <http://www.geistassociates.com> (online portfolio/resume)

See also:
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References:
Re: Formatting Docs On-The-Fly: From: Tony Markos

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