TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Smarter person than me - shifted slightly From:"Sharon Burton-Hardin" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 12 Mar 2003 12:04:08 -0800
One of the hardest things for a contractor to learn - and it took me about 5
years to really get this - is that the customer is not always right, but
they have a right to get what they are paying for. And when they define what
they want to pay for, they need to get that. Even if they are wrong. (I am
not saying our client is wrong here, there are things that are driving these
decisions that I cannot impact so I won't even quarrel with them.)
Contractors have an obligation to point out the possible or likely problems
if decision A is made but if the client says, Nope, we like this decision
and that is what we want, then that is what they need to get.
My job is to make the best of what the client wants and to mitigate as many
problems as I can, given what they are paying for.
This is VERY hard to get when you are fresh faced and shiny. It is sometimes
very hard to watch a company make not good decisions that you know are going
to bite them, but we have an obligation to provide the best we can possibly
do, even when it is not what WE think should be done.
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Dick
Margulis
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 11:49 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Need a smarter person than me
Anthony Davey <ant -at- ant-davey -dot- com> wrote:
>
>Sharon,
>
>You realise, of course, that when this document is printed and turns out
>to be totally illegible, because of all the things your client insisted
>on, it's still going to be your fault.
Anthony,
What you say is true. But the client could also be correct in that instance.
Sharon has taken on quite a challenge, and the client is certainly being
unreasonable. However, what we have here is a design challenge.
This is a bit far afield for someone whose specialty is shaping prose to
communicate technical information gracefully, and it really calls for
someone with a fair amount of typographical expertise. But it is the kind of
challenge book designers face all the time. There is no reason the result
needs to be illegible or even ugly. Yes, something's got to give--white
space, point size, whatever--and the STC contest judges will never see the
original specifications, so they probably won't give it a design award even
if it deserves one. But the purpose of _design_ is to fit a solution within
the imposed constraints.
Order RoboHelp Office X3 by March 14 and receive a $100 mail-in rebate,
plus FREE WebHelp Merge Module and FREE iMarkup Software, for a
total giveaway value of $439! Order today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
Help celebrate TECHWR-L's 10th Anniversary starting this month!
Check out the contests at http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/special/contests/
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday TECHWR-L....
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
