Re: Important News for Writers (long)

[Barbara Karst-Sabin <Phillinion -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

In a message dated 98-07-07 16:34:25 EDT, mhunterk -at- BNA -dot- COM writes:

<< For technical writers in particular, this
 Article 2B would make *us* responsible for the accuracy and content of our
 work--not our clients. In short, a client could give us lousy copy and no
 help and expect us to create a masterpiece. If we don't, they could take
 action, like withhold payment. >>

I heard something to this effect among a group of tech writers a couple of
months ago.  The worry then was that, in addition to withholding payment, a
company might choose to sue the "offending" writer for the cost of reprinting.
Then there's always the possibility of an error in an equipment manual which
would lead to physical injury or damaged property...how's that for giving you
paranoid nightmares?

This just means to me that I will not only document every time I cannot get
the appropriate information from the SME or everytime the reviewers fail to
answer questions or address issues I have queried, I will hang onto that
material until hell freezes over. \;+)))  I would, however, think that few
companies would resort to these tactics, simply because there are too many
steps in the process over which the tech writer has no control.

One hopes,

BJ