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RE: Anyone Can Write - Just Look At The Job Descriptions
Subject:RE: Anyone Can Write - Just Look At The Job Descriptions From:"Richard Melanson" <rmelanson -at- spirecorp -dot- com> To:"Robert Courtney" <bobsc1 -at- earthlink -dot- net>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 8 Aug 2011 11:38:55 -0400
Bobby,
Very sorry to hear what has happened. I was, and maybe am still, in a
similar situation. Trying to be brief, I am also at a small company,
maybe 125 total headcount. I was initially in the tech services/customer
services department. But I gently lobbied the better place for the sole
tech writer was engineering, and believe it or not, they agreed and I
was moved.
My company as a whole does not value a good sentence, the proper use of
white space, page layout, etc. I have convinced them though that
technical accuracy is very important. So, at the moment, I am
sacrificing many of the items you mention below to meet their deadlines
but making sure the document/s are technical accurate. So to close, I
now produce what I consider less than quality work, but I am getting
numerous compliments on how good the current documentation is. Go
figure.
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+rmelanson=spirecorp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+rmelanson=spirecorp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Robert Courtney
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 12:40 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Anyone Can Write - Just Look At The Job Descriptions
Well, I was just got laid off and I did make their very poor
documentation readable. It had no white space and everything ran
together. So, I fixed their documentation. I rewrote all the bad
sentences. Gave them copy that was very acceptable. But, the management
didn't really care about a good technical writer. And I had one of the
owners who wouldn't give me his help file to reformat the bad sentence
structure. I was put in the technical services dept. where I did not
belong. So, when they sold the company to a larger company they
restructured. And that was the time they felt they could get rid of the
technical writer who didn't seem to fit in with what they wanted.
So, what are they doing now? They are going back to their bad sentence
structure and don't care if anyone really understands their documents.
It is amazing how ignorant companies can be. They were a small company
till they got sold it to a larger company. And I am sorry that they have
no idea what good documentation really is. But you know, you can only
help them so much. If they don't want to improve, there is nothing you
can do.
And alas, I am looking for a new job in this very bad economy.
So, can anyone write? You betcha..... Too bad they don't know how bad
the writing is.
Bobby
On 8/7/2011 8:00 PM, Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
> I suspect this is one of those YMMV things. For me it's a positive
> because I choose to see it as one and try to make it work to my
> advantage.
>
> Unfortunately, it's also possible that the statement in question has a
> different tone when it begins with "he" rather than "she."
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "beelia" <beelia -at- gmail -dot- com>
>
>
>> In my experience, when someone says "make it pretty", he is telling
>> the company how important and clever he is, and how insignificant the
>> contribution of the tech writer is.
>
>> Gene, I rarely disagree with you, but you're missing the patronizing
>> tone that usually accompanies "she makes me dot my i's and t's".
>> What he really means that his i's and t's are about as important as
>> washing his socks.
>
>> By "pretty", they mean that the content is perfect, but it isn't in
>> the company format - or he doesn't know how to number the pages and
>> put in headers and footers.
>>
>> Usually these guys (and they are always guys) are really insecure, do
>> mediocre work, and their documents are so bad they need a total
>> rewrite.
>>
>> Whenever I hear "make it pretty" I don't get mad - I just lose
>> respect for that person and try to avoid working with him (because I
>> might end up doing his job and not getting credit for it).
>>
>> I spent decades letting stuff like this slide because I needed the
>> job. Considering the unemployment rate, I guess that might qualify as
>> being "in a pretty good place."
>
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