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Subject:RE: $500 million for an error in a policy manual From:Dan Goldstein <DGoldstein -at- nuot -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 8 Dec 2014 12:25:05 -0500
Point taken. It does seem crazy that there weren't a dozen lower-level documents involved: material specifications, approved supplier lists, procedural work instructions, etc. Of course, the reporter might have just gotten all the details wrong.
Either way, for lack of a good technical writer, $500 million was lost. Clearly, none of us is paid enough for what we do.
-----Original Message-----
From: Gene Kim-Eng [mailto:techwr -at- genek -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2014 12:07 PM
To: Dan Goldstein; TECHWR-L (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)
Subject: Re: $500 million for an error in a policy manual
Saying "inorganic" instead of stating specific ingredients required or a list of approved products by name for a potentially hazard-creating material would be a serious technical error that goes way beyond being a typo. You can't presume that a purchasing agent or warehouse shipping clerk is going to know the difference between organic and inorganic materials. In today's consumer market, telling someone you don't want organic runs a good chance of resulting in that person not buying or shipping anything with a label stating it's made from organically farmed ingredients
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