Re: Non-English tech writer

[Al Geist <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>]

   John Posada wrote:

Why would someone hire a person to do professional writing if the
person doesn't even have a suitable grasp of the language?

  

   As someone who has had his position "outsourced" a number of times, only to
   be retained on a contractual basis to clean up the writing, I agree with
   John on this one.  (In this case, I use the term outsourced to mean the same
   as off shoring.) Outsourcing is one thing; however, if the purpose of the
   outsourcing is to reduce costs (primarily labor costs), yet the actual costs
   actually increase because of the extensive rewrites, then someone at your
   organization needs to move beyond the current fad and seriously look at the
   true cost of their new document development process.  For those who use
   English as a second language, please do not take this as a slam against you,
   I am questioning the business practice of outsourcing.  If you are
   developing manuals for Indian speakers, or German speakers, or Japanese
   speakers, would you hire someone who writes perfect English, but has trouble
   with any of those other languages, and expect to reduce your documentation
   costs?
   Al

   --

   Al Geist
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   Winning Videos, Professional Photography
   Voice/Msg: 802-658-3140

   Cell: 802-578-3964
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   "When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to
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                            Theodore Roosevelt

References

   1. mailto:al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com
   2. http://www.geistassociates.com/
   3. http://www.geistimages.com/
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