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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: Robert Courtney <bobsc1 -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:40:01 -0700

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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Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: Anyone Can Write - Just Look At The Job Descriptions: From: Ed
Re: Anyone Can Write - Just Look At The Job Descriptions: From: beelia
Re: Anyone Can Write - Just Look At The Job Descriptions: From: Gene Kim-Eng

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