Re: Typuz n Wrezms

[Stephen Victor <svictor -at- HOUSTON -dot- GEOQUEST -dot- SLB -dot- COM>]

Robert Plamondon wrote:
>
> Theodora Mazza writes:
>
> >I fidgeted in my seat long enough. I gotta go for the podium.
>
> >If as a tech writer you can't write a perfect one (ok, two) page resume, how
> >can you write a nearly-perfect brochure, manual,etc.? If you can't present
> >yourself well enough in front of me, how well can you represent me in front of
> >my clients?
>
> What makes you think these are rhetorical questions?

Did she say that they were?

> Let me turn this around:  If I can write a perfect resume, then I
> can write a perfect brochure, and thus no one needs to edit or proofread
> my work.  If I can write a few perfect pages, one can easily prove by
> induction that I can write any number of perfect pages, and thus there
> is no reason for proofreaders and copy-editors to exist.  Right?

It appears you have as high a regard for sound reasoning as you do for
good writing.

> Yet the publishing industry has always assumed that all work (no matter
> how short or how long) needs to be edited and proofread.  Some of this
> work is even more "important" than a resume, yet the writers do not
> seem to be able to be pressed into perfection by the weight of their
> burden.
>
> Either you or the publishing industry is making a fundamental error on
> how error-free documents are created.

But are we talking about the publishing industry here? Of course, a
publisher edits a work before publishing it; we know that. You have
introduced a non sequitur into the discussion. (Look it up while you're
looking up "rhetorical.") Many writers (in my experience, most writers)
don't have the luxury of proofreaders and copyeditors. We're expected to
do these things ourselves, making us in effect one-person publishing
houses. The hiring managers who look for errors in resumes know that
their writers will be expected to handle their own proofreading, and
they use such errors (fairly or unfairly) as indicators of future
performance.

Sorry for the snippy tone, but I have high standards for my profession.

Regards,
Steve
--
Stephen P. Victor                               Phone: (713) 513-2552
Technical Writer, Software Training             Fax:   (713) 513-2019
Schlumberger GeoQuest                svictor -at- houston -dot- geoquest -dot- slb -dot- com
5599 San Felipe, Suite 1700
Houston, Texas 77056 USA

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