Re: "Weaning" strategies

["Porrello, Leonard" <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- TANDEM -dot- COM>]

By allowing our coworkers to wallow in grammatical illiteracy (to whatever
extent) ultimately debases our value as technical communicators. One of the
reasons I left teaching at the university is that I tired of correcting
patterns of simple grammatical errors in student essay. Students make the
errors not because they are incapable (of course!), but because they don't
take the few hours necessary to go through a simple grammar primer. As a
professional writer, I can do far more than correct grammatical mistakes. To
spend any significant amount of time editing for basic grammar is a waste of
my time and ability and, therefore, a waste of company time and money. If I
told my bosses, "Gee, you spend $XX.xx an hour so that I can correct the
simple grammar errors that any intelligent adult can learn to overcome in
about an hour," I don't imagine that she would be very pleased. As for the
argument of freeing up people to do what they do best, it is a strawman. We
don't expect those who provide our technical raw material to know how to
pitch a document for a given audience, how to negotiate the passive and
active voices, or when it is better to use a simple sentence rather than a
complex sentence, just to mention a few of the superficial things we, as
professional writers, do. I do, however, expect them to have a command of
basic English grammar. Without this, arguably, they can't even really do
what they do best, for they can not communicate clearly and accurately. Our
value is debased as might be that of a psychologist, who though capable of
probing the minds and hearts of his patients deeply enough to help them to
overcome their deepest fears and pains is relegated to spending his time
helping patients to overcome nailbiting. Sure, nail biting is unattractive,
and sure a good psychologist can be of assistance in helping one to overcome
the habit, but most people who care enough about it can overcome nailbiting
alone. (And here I don't mean to imply that nail biting is something to care
about terribly!) In a few hours, any literate person can learn enough of
simple English grammar to write grammatically correct English (though not
necessarily perfect English--an error or two seems to slip in the writing of
even the best of writers).

Leonard


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jean Weber
> Sent: Monday, July 20, 1998 4:16 PM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: "Weaning" strategies
>
> My experience (with a lot of different people and companies, including
> science research establishments and engineering firms as well as software
> development teams) suggests that a better solution is to join them, not to
> fight them.
>
> Rather than attempting to teach the other staff members to write better
> (and thus wean them off your services), hire or contract with a good
> editor
> (perhaps part-time) to do the rewriting and proofreading. It's a win-win
> deal -- everyone will be happier, you'll get better results, and it's
> usually more cost-effective too, because it leaves everyone to do whatever
> they do best.
>
> Reading further through my mail, I see Sella Rush < sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
> >
> has said much the same thing. (And perhaps by the time I send this, others
> will have done so too.)
>
> Jean
>
> Jean Hollis Weber
> P.O. Box 640, Airlie Beach, QLD 4802
> Australia
> Ph. (07) 4948 0450
> Fax. (07) 4948 0435
> jhweber -at- whitsunday -dot- net -dot- au
>
> ----------
> > From: Michael Sperger <msperger -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>
> > To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> > Subject: "Weaning" strategies
> > Date: Tuesday, July 21, 1998 2:09
> >
> > All,
> >
> > Apologies if the subject line is a bit vague - I'm still not sure
> > exactly what to call this concept.
> >
> > I provide writing, design, and proofreading support for an office of
> > about 20 in-house staff and about 200 consultants in the field. My
> > mission, should I choose to accept it, 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. He hoped I would be able to impart some wisdom
> > through this process about how to write well. Instead, our staff
> > members are increasingly viewing me as their personal
> > writer/proofreader, saying that they do not need to learn anything as
> > long as I am there to do it for them.
> >
> > So we need another attack plan. I want to "wean" these folks off of my
> > help, but we still have quality issues to tackle. How can I provide
> > useful support without simply becoming a crutch?
> >
> > I'm sure this topic is as old as the hills, but I can't find anything
> > in the archives. Please send suggestions to me at msperger -at- yahoo -dot- com,
> > and I'll post a findings report when I've heard from a few of you. I
> > will be writing one up for my boss anyway.
> >
> > Thanks for your help!
> >
> >
> > Mike Sperger
> > msperger -at- yahoo -dot- com
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> >
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