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Subject:RE: An Editor's Role...To Punish the Writer? From:"Sean Brierley" <sbri -at- haestad -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 28 Jun 2002 16:30:49 -0400
I had a similar situation, in which an editor broadcast an e-mail
message, to most of the company and upper management, about my gross
errors and inability to follow edited direction. The problem was, I had
the documentation to prove the e-mail was false, point-by-point in most
cases, and that my work was quite accurate. Indeed, I sat down with my
boss, with the e-mail, my work, and the proof--including the editors
written comments, and vindicated myself to my boss--I dunno what the
others thought of me, I did not do that on a company-wide basis (perhaps
I should). It was not a misunderstanding, it was nasty and untruthful .
. ..
I still don't understand that encounter; I certainly had not asked for
it. Aside from that, I have never worked with a dedicated editor. And,
on projects I control, I now deliberately avoid using one so I don't
have to go through that again. True, my docs might go out with a few
more errors, but I am willing to pay that price.
I've been at this company for about 5 weeks, and apart from trying my
darndest to meet next to impossible deadlines, I've had to deal with
something that I've never had to deal with before. Our editors seem to
have the attitude of: "We need to punish those naughty writers." And
believe me, punish they do. For example, I recently received a document
that not only had tons of "slash and burn" comments(and yes, I know my
own weaknesses), but the tone was tense and terse. Also, our editors
copy our managers, directors, and anyone else they feel should look over
the writer's work..."Sigh"
I was under a complete illusion, that is I thought that editors where
here to help and to point out inconsistencies, I was wrong! A writer
must turn in a completely clean doc, and if they don't *&$#!!! Never
mind that you may have had only a few weeks to write a 700 page manual
from scratch.
Here's what burns in my mind. If all the writers turned in completely
clean docs, why have editors?
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