Re: Honestly -- when an SME completely REWRITES your text ... GEEZ!

["Meryl R. Cohen" <merylster -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Some people find that they think best and express themselves best by
writing. This doesn't mean that the writing is good. It just means that
writing is how they figure things out.

I would take the SME's efforts in the best possible light.
1) Is his description different in meaning than yours? How? Do other
comments agree with him?
2) If so, rewrite using his meaning and your words/style.
3) Then meet with/email him thanking him for his time and input and
explaining that you appreciate the help he has provided in understanding the
function. Provide your new text.

BTW what is the policy/culture where you work? Must you take every piece of
feedback as true? I always pay attention to technical/substantive feedback
and follow writing style feedback as appropriate in relation to my view and
the company style.

Meryl


On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 9:59 AM, Downing, David <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com>wrote:

> The other day, I held a document review meeting, and one of the SMEs
> told me I needed to rewrite the description of a particular function to
> clarify it. Okay, fair enough. I rewrite the passages (and made various
> other revisions from the meeting) and sent out the revised text to
> everyone. I got an email back from this particular SME this morning in
> which he completely rewrite the function description for me. I'm not
> sure whether to be
>
> - Grateful to him for trying to be helpful.
>
> - Angry with him for not keeping his place and trying to usurp my role.
> Hey, I'M the writer.
>
> - Insulted, because he's decided I can't write. Rather than telling me
> the passage heeds further clarification, he's thrown up his hands and
> just said, "Looks like I need to write this for him."
>
> One thing's for sure -- what he wrote does NOT conform to our
> departmental style.
>
> How would you take it -- and has anything like this happened to any of
> you?
>
> (And I'm going to check the "To" filed in this email very carefully
> before sending it. I've made the mistake several times recently of
> sending messages to the list that were meant for someone else. It would
> be just my luck, that I would send this message meant for the list to
> the SME by mistake.)
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