Re: Writing Corrective Actions for customers?

Subject: Re: Writing Corrective Actions for customers?
From: Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>
To: Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:18:31 -0700

Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
> Yes, I could see that from the dangerous perception of the
> corporate landscape that sprouted forth fully formed from
> "I've been asked to write a letter..."

Mockery! Nicely done. What began as an insufficiently-specified writing
task was treated as a design task (because it was not well specified),
which some respondents developed into secretarial work and on into a
tech writing task, primarily IMHO because it was sent to this list, but
also because it needed more information ("research") and some writing,
which was identified more or less as our process.

> However, with due
> allowance for possible past trauma the poster may have
> suffered at the hands of the unscrupulous, arriving at that
> perception directly from the original post without asking
> for additional details about Deborah's individual situation
> struck me as something other than "critical thinking," and
> I'm going to refrain from expressing my view of continuing
> to defend the perception even after Deborah provided her
> clarifying details.


I've studied law, and I've worked in tech writing for nearly twenty
years, and if my understanding of the task was as thin and uncertain as
Deborah's, I could end up looking like I sacrificed the client's
interests to forward my own ambition. I hate it when I look like that,
it is just so bad for business.

I wonder if *anyone* refrained from designing a solution because they
didn't have enough info? No? I thought not. We are good designers.

>
> However, judging from the number of people who seemed
> ready to jump to the same conclusion, it would seem that
> getting stabbed in the back is a more common experience
> among writers than I realized.


I wouldn't be surprised to hear that a significant number of people have
had unhappy workplace outcomes that they never saw coming. Learning to
avoid them and stay in the game for decades is no small feat, to be sure.


> Usually, what I observe and
> experience in bad work environments is more likely to be
> the result of incompetence and disorganization than evil
> Machievellian scheming.


OK. But in a bad work environment, one doesn't stand there waiting to
fall under the relentless wheels of incompetence. One grabs a brick and
hides behind a tree.

If it was truly Machiavellian, I'd probably rush out to shake hands.

--Ned


>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ned Bedinger" <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>
>> The poster said he is an individual who feels that the workplace can be
>> opaque and boobytrapped with pitfalls (minefield was the expression).
>> He's not delusional, the workplace CAN be a real snakepit. When he
>> wonders why such Public Relations (not CRM, I would guess he meant) work
>> suddenly gets routed to him, I see critical thinking. I think he's wise
>> to follow his instincts in hoping to avoid the vicissitudes of being
>> exposed to every drib or drab of the stuff that runs downhill. With no
>> one else watching his six o'clock position, he's entirely right to fret.
>>
>> Honestly, one can understand the need for a technical writer without
>> abandoning the self-preservation instinct, and I think that's what the
>> correspondent was trying to say, if from the hip.
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>
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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Writing Corrective Actions for customers?: From: Combs, Richard
Re: Writing Corrective Actions for customers?: From: Ned Bedinger
Re: Writing Corrective Actions for customers?: From: Gene Kim-Eng
Re: Writing Corrective Actions for customers?: From: Ned Bedinger
Re: Writing Corrective Actions for customers?: From: Gene Kim-Eng

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