Correcting Other People was: Fun pairs

[Gail Gurman <gail -at- HOMEMAIL -dot- COM>]

>>>>> "JG" == Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- marvin -dot- eng -dot- sun -dot- com> writes:
JG> I got two email messages the other day from a project manager and both
JG> were to confirm that one of my writers and I were "insink." I finally
JG> used "in sync" in a reply to the second message even though I didn't
JG> really have to, just so she could see what the correct spelling was!

That reminds me of a time back when I was a word processor. I worked
for a partnership of emergency physicians and we had a dictation
line that some of the doctors used. They could call in and dictate
documents onto a tape machine; later I would transcribe those
documents.

I couldn't just transcribe without thinking; I had to correct
mistakes where I heard them. There was one guy who just happened to
be the Chairman of the Board who would consistently dictate
punctuation incorrectly: He would say "semicolon" instead of "comma"
and "colon" instead of "semicolon". I, of course, would correct
these mistakes. However, he was adamant about them. When I sent him
drafts, he would invariably send them back "corrected."

I felt I had to do something, but he was the kind of guy that
everyone was afraid of, so I had to be delicate. I copied a couple
of pages out of a very clear style guide (I forget the name and I
don't have it with me). It had a very well-written explanation of
how semicolons are used. I wrote him a short, carefully thought out
note in which I said something to the effect that semicolons are a
quite enigmatic and often misunderstood punctuation (I believe I
used those exact words), and attached the copy of the style guide
pages.

I didn't hear anything from him for a while, but the next time he
did a dictation, he got to a pause and said "semicolon--I mean,
comma." I nearly fainted!

--
Gail Gurman          |  Email -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot-  -dot- gail -at- homemail -dot- com
Technical Writer     |  Personal Web Page.....http://www.wco.com/~gailg/
Wink Communications  |  Company Web Page......http://www.wink.com/

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html