TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: "Weaning" strategies From:P Diller <pdiller -at- MAIL -dot- STATE -dot- MO -dot- US> Date:Mon, 20 Jul 1998 12:48:53 -0400
My
> mission, ...is to improve the quality of
> written communication throughout our office.
>
> My supervisor asked me to begin proofreading documents before they
> went out the door.
First question: After you proofread, do you clean up the doc then issue
it? Or do you proofread doc and return it to writer to make corrections?
If it's the former, I can see why staff feel there's no need to change
their current behavior. Why should they change if you're going to do the
clean up work?
What I've found helpful in the past was to develop a form, which I
attached to the original when I returned it to the writer. I'd make
notes on the doc itself (primarily typos), but I'd use the form to
explain grammatical rules or style suggestions.
The advantage of the form is that one can track the most common errors.
This information can be used to target training. Also, the writer can
keep the form for future reference.
