Re: Developers

[Sharon Burton-Hardin <sharonburton -at- EMAIL -dot- MSN -dot- COM>]

Thank them for their input and the time taken for the effort. And then ask
if it was technically accurate before the edit (sometimes the restructure
actually changed the meaning, even though the grammar, et. al., is worse).
If the answer was Yes, ignore the edit. Everyone wants to edit. I don't know
why. Maybe because it is easier than working on the technical accuracy or
maybe because it was accurate and they felt they had to contribute something
to the effort.

If the next round of edits has them insisting that the change be made, tell
them they are an excellent programmer and you would never think to edit
their code.....

It generally works, unless you have a control freak. I have had a few of
those and I have no strategy for dealing with that other than eventually
giving in.

My thoughts.

sharon

Sharon Burton-Hardin
President of the Inland Empire chapter of the STC
Anthrobytes Consulting
Home of RoboNEWS(tm), the unofficial RoboHELP newsletter
www.anthrobytes.com
Check out www.WinHelp.net!
See www.sharonburton.com!

-----Original Message-----
From: Leona L. Magee-Dupree <leona -dot- magee-dupree -at- CCBCC -dot- COM>
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
Date: Thursday, 17 December, 1998 8:02 AM
Subject: Developers


>I gave a copy of instructions to a developer and the developer ignored the
>instructions and changed the sentences from active to passive.  The
>developer tried to edit the documentation.  What does a technical writer
>have to do to get feedback about the accuracy of a document and not "tid
>bits" of how to write from someone who does not know how to write?  Why do
>developers do this?  How should we react?
>
>From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==
>
>
>

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=