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

Subject: Re: Honestly -- when an SME completely REWRITES your text ... GEEZ!
From: "Moshe Kruger (AllWrite)" <moshe -dot- kruger -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "Downing, David" <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:28:44 +0200

I say, "take it like a man."

We are writers, but no-one has a handle on the technical know-how like the
developers. Our aim is to be understood and to make the system accessible.
Our aim is not to win writing prizes. If that SME has assisted in making the
text easier to understand, thank him and move on.

Having said that, now that he has written the text, you have license to edit
it to conform to "departmental style" change the language and so on, without
changing the meaning.

On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 3:59 PM, 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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--
Moshe Kruger
Mobile: +972-54-740-7232
----------------------------------------
www.allwrite-design.com
www.linkedin.com/in/allwrite
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help gives you everything you need to author and
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authors, developers, and policy writers. Download a FREE trial.
http://www.componentone.com/DocToHelp/

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

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Honestly -- when an SME completely REWRITES your text ... GEEZ!: From: Downing, David

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