Re: Hiring (was: Tech Writing 101 - How to tie a shoe)

[David John <David -at- BMIS -dot- DEMON -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

At 02:52 PM 1/13/99 +0000, you wrote:

>I had two major problems. The first problem is English.  I want people to
>*write* in English.

Why do you expect native Portuguese speakers to write in English, and write
well?  I don't think I'd expect a native English speaker to write
Portuguese instructional material well, just as a result of having been to
a university (even a good university).

Supposing you had adopted this approach instead:
1.  Find a native Portuguese speaker with demonstrable skills in identifyng
tasks and audiences, in gathering, analysing, and organising data and
information, and in writing well (to some level of detail that could then
at least be worked on by a specialist).  I suppose what I'm suggesting is
that you ideally find a good tech writer whose native language is Portuguese!
2.  Get them to produce the instructions in Portuguese
3.  Develop the instructions, in terms of how well they support the tasks,
and rework them as necessary, still in Portuguese
4.  Have the results translated into English (and other languages as needed).

After all, isn't that what your American counterpart would do, in reverse,
if you see what I mean?  I may be wrong of course, but it seems reasonable
to me...


Regards,
David.


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