SUMMARY: "Weaning" strategies

[Michael Sperger <msperger -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

All,

Once again, thank you for your time and consideration. To date I have
received 30 messages on this topic, and each one has been thoughtful
and well-spoken. I greatly appreciate your help!

The majority of responses concerned either the management situation in
our office, or the possibility of developing a style guide for staff
reference. In the former group, suggestions ran from clrifying my job
description to using an internal billing system:

"First a question - what's the difference between proofreading support
and proofreading? Do you mean you are the final decision maker for
style/spelling, etc.? If so, maybe you should change your title to
standards manager.... In any event, you need a well-defined job
description and the support to back it up so you can say no if you
have to."
                         - Kate Kane

"I'd try to position myself more like a 'trainer/ consultant' in the
sense that I'd set up some in-house presentations, giving tips,
showing examples...."
                         - Doug Vereschagin

"What you call 'weaning' is a management function done by setting
performance expectations and conducting performance reviews. Your
manager will set the tone; if s/he likes things as they are, you'll
have a hard time changing corporate culture."
                         - Rahel Bailie

"Ask why the company wants to improve everyone's writing ability, and
decide whether the reasons are sensible (they may be). If not, the
real solution may be to hire a dedicated proofer."
                         - Sella Rush

Respondents in the latter group, recommending a style guide, shared a
similar concept, perhaps with different ideas for implementation:

"I would suggest a 'souped-up' style guide of sorts, with emphasis on
grammatical specifics.... Maybe give them copies of 'The Elements of
Style' by Strunk and White? I'm assuming they already have templates?"
                         - Cheryl Dwyer

"Write an in-house style guide and distribute, or purchase a common
guide for use by all."
                         - Vickie Nurre

"The simplest, and really only, solution I can come up with is for you
to put together an in-house style guide, including your solutions to
the more common problems you've run across."
                         - Lisa Rea

A few writers took a different tack, and recommended simple but
effective techniques for making the task of proofreading easier on me
and our staff:

"When editing, do not give specific wording changes, but write
something vague like 'work with this to clarify' and circle the
paragraph(s) you mean. you can also provide information about what
makes something unclear.... Don't make the changes yourself, return to
the original writer for them to make changes."
                         - Vickie Nurre

"Begin keeping track of the errors... that you see. Sort them into
categories - and you'll learn what categories are needed as you go.
Send out a monthly memo listing the top types of errors, how to spot
them, and how to correct them."
                         - Barry House

"If you have a company newsletter, or other regular form of internal
communication, you could write a regular column of
tips/suggestions.... Also, you could provide periodic training classes."
                         - Kate Kane

"To cure the proofreading part, let them know that after the first,
say, five proofreading errors you'll stop reading and return the
item.... Of course, you'd embed the announcement of the proofreading
limit in a reminder of what your services are supposed to be for. And
the number five is somewhat arbitrary...."
                         - Jessica Weissman

"What I've found useful 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, but I'd use the form to explain grammatical
rules or style suggestions."
                         - P Diller

Just to tell you about what we're doing here, we began a process last
month to develop a style guide for our document writers. The guide
will include sections on choosing the right document for your message,
writing the text, proofreading your work, and formatting your work in
MS-Office. Structured as a reference, this guide reflects the results
of interviews with writers and observations from our Deliverable
Review Process.

A disk (or CD) of templates, and possibly a WinHelp version of the
guide, will accompany the printed text. The templates will be loaded
with pre-written sections common to all documents - for instance, the
company overview in our proposals.

Concurrent with the release of the guide, we will begin a training
program on writing, open to all branch employees. Most of these
elements will be in place by the end of August, with rollout of the
online version following into October or November.

This is an exceptionally long message, but I found the material
informative. I hope my learning process here proves useful to all of
you.


Mike Sperger
msperger -at- yahoo -dot- com
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