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Subject:Re: What is the best way of getting feedback? From:"Connie Giordano" <connie -at- therightwordz -dot- com> To:"SB" <sylvia -dot- braunstein -at- gmail -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:24:35 -0500
Sylvia,
Thoughts from someone who works both sides of that fence:
A good freelancer follows the standards, procedures and cultural dictates of his/her client. If the procedures are faulty, the consultant recommend improvements, but never insists upon them. In this case, if he continues to insist on his way to the detriment of your working relationships with your reviewers, consider terminating the agreement. You're not getting the ROI you need for the aggravation you're putting up with.
For reviewing drafts, I would use a combination of 2 and 3. 1 is beyond cumbersome and smacks of short-sighted ego-centric process wonkiness.
Set up meetings if that is the acceptable way of handling reviews in your organization. I'd much rather go the email and phone call route wherever possible, because I find review meetings often counter-productive (everyone's a writer, right?), but that's my preference, not necessarily my clients'.
Minimize the number of reviewers, use track changes, and establish one of your duties as the final arbiter of the changes.
People have already proven that they have no intention of learning his method and adapting... and as a freelance he shouldn't be expecting them to.
Good luck!
Connie P. Giordano
The Right Words
Communications & Information Design
(704) 957-8450 (cell)
www.therightwords.com
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney
> -------Original Message-------
> From: SB <sylvia -dot- braunstein -at- gmail -dot- com>
> Subject: What is the best way of getting feedback?
> Sent: 30 Oct '07 11:09
>
> I would like to find out what is the most effective way to get feedback from
> R&D and others.
>
> Please note that we are in a company in which everybody is
> under tremendous pressure to meet deadlines; therfore, the technical writers
> need to optimize feedback while minimizing time resources invested by the
> SMEs. In addition, while is a requirement as part of the product (it was
> hard for me to convince the freelancer that this was a fact) documentation
> is not particularly cherished . We use MS Word as a tool and we are only two
> technical writers (we will hire a third one) to document all the products of
> the company (130 workers or so). Also, at times we need to document without
> pre-existing documentation (and with a system that is under development).
>
> My method is to send out one email with all the questions, attach a clean
> file for review (most don't look at the whole document), and then do the leg
> work to get answers if I don't get them. I try to accomodate their
> schedule and make phone calls, call short meetings, etc. I try to make it as
> simple and pleasant as possible while respecting the pressure they are
> under. So far, I got positive feedback and most of the answers I need. I
> believe that email spamming on the end of the technical writer (with lots of
> arguments and questions going back and forth) is not good practice either.
>
> My colleague (or rather the freelancer that works with me) who is much more
> verbose believes in sending out the whole file with track changes and color
> coding for questions and answers. Even when communicating with me, he would
> send me lengthy emails while he is sitting next to me. He was disappointed
> because the most responsive team didn't really provide feedback to his
> questions. I told him that I find his files intimidating. He feels that this
> is ridiculous because this has always worked before. It might have but the
> rythm of this company is very high and there is not much time to dedicate to
> prose and legends. I find that even the teams that have so far been the most
> responsive do not relate to these questions, let alone read the whole
> document.
>
> We are not talking about small sections that are sent out for review here
> but whole documents (100-200 pages long) going back and forth.
>
> I believe in keeping it simple. I may be wrong and he may be right. I just
> would like to know what others do and find most effective when working in a
> company where we need to be very efficient.
>
> After an initial review of a draft (or a merge), should we:
>
> *Send the whole document with*
> 1. Colored legends (for example red for eidited, please review, blue for
> questions, other colors for comments)
> 2. Track changes by multiple reviewers?
> 3. Comments?
> 4. A combination therof?
>
> If using this method, how many times should we send the whole document for
> review with colored legends, track changes, and ask for confirmation?
>
> *Should we:*
> 1. Group all the question in one single email?
> 2. Favorize meetings/phone calls whenever possible and ask the questions
>
> *Should we:*
> Have them make the changes and we edit them?
>
> I prefer user-friendly and simple methods, which is often adapted to the way
> each individual works best.
> So, I guess the answer is probably all of the above.
>
> Yet, I would still like to know from those who have to meet deadlines and
> have loads of work with only two people doing the writing, how do you get
> optimal feedback?
>
> I believe in working with people and adapting to them. He believes that
> people have to learn his method and adapt.
> The question is, how do we standardize?
>
> Thanks for your feedback.
>
> Sylvia
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