Paper for Printing

[Marilynne Smith <m -dot- smith182 -at- GENIE -dot- GEIS -dot- COM>]

>> book is produced on paper of such poor quality . . .

I just purchased a faster modem with fax capabilities.  The book that came
with it was printed on a cheap grade of newsprint.  The ink had bled into
the paper.  On some pages I had a thin slice of paper toward the edge.  This
had been part of the page when it was printed.  What I, the customer and
user, received was 4/5 of a printed page bound into the book (it was a whole
page with only 4/5 of the printing) and 1/5 of the page loose and floating
(this was just a little strip of printed paper).  This happened on more than
one page.  I had to tape it onto the page in order to read it.

On other pages two pieces of paper (each printed on only one side) were
glued together to make one page.

You can believe it.  The writing looked like a pretty fair writer had taken
one pass at it.  I am trying to be fair to the writer, since I can imagine
how this could happen on the writing side.

However, as a customer, I wondered if I had received $120 worth of hardware,
when the signs of cost cutting were so obvious.  I will think twice before
buying from this manufacturer again.

We as technical writers need to guard against low quality work when we can.
Poor quality doesn't really serve the company. In this case, the
manufacturer could have printed the user's guide on quality newsprint and it
would have been OK, not wonderful, but OK. Instead they opted for a very
cheap and sloppy bit of work.

Marilynne
 m.smith182

P.S.  Is there a name for the kind of page I describe?  If so, I'd like to
know it.