Re: Resolving edits

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- STARBASECORP -dot- COM>]

From Charles Webster...
>   How do you handle the situation in which one reviewer (out
>   of a total of six) who insists that his/her changes/edits
>   _must_ be incorporated in to the current revision?

>   I have one review team member who is adamant that
>   his/her edits absolutely must be incorporated into the
>   current revision, regardless of the opinions of the other
>   team members and myself. He/She is the "software
>   quality assurance" engineer and as such insists that the
>   quality of the manual is within his/her purview.

>   My position is (and has been for the last twelve years of
>   being a tech writer) that I will accommodate a reviewer's
>   edits "within reason" and that as the writer _I_ have the
>   final say in what goes in the manuals.

Charles...
You haven't let on what kind of information the SQA wants you
to change, but if it's clearly within the realm of tech writing
and not QA, you may be better off just siting your sources.

Often when I'm questioned about why I did not document *every*
single way to perform an action, or why I used a particular
font or why I formatted something one way and not another, I
find it beneficial to give the questioner one or more source
documents that support my position (an article on minimalist
documentation, one on font selection, etc). Usually, rather
than read through the stuff I copy and give to them, they
just let me have my way. ;-)

Sue Gallagher
StarBase Corp, Irvine CA
sgallagher -at- starbasecorp -dot- com