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Subject:Re: Just another reviewer/editor anecdote From:Priscilla Berry <pberry -at- INFORMIX -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 22 Sep 1993 14:56:36 PDT
psb>
psb> Tracing back over the train of desks that the instructions had crossed, I
psb> eventually found out that the secretary who was supposed to type them up
psb> had (in her words) "covered for" me. She saw that I had ignorantly used
psb> all these unprofessional words, like "get" and "put", and kindly replaced
psb> them with more professional terms, like "obtain" and "deploy", so I
psb> wouldn't lose my job.
psb>
psb> I had to go back and systematically change the first dozen or so procedures
psb> into simpler terms for the workers.
psb>
psb>
psb> Randy Allen Harris raha -at- watarts -dot- uwaterloo -dot- ca
psb> Rhetoric and Professional Writing 519 885-1211, x5362
psb> English, U of Waterloo FAX: 519 884-8995
psb> Waterloo ON, CANADA, N2L 3G1
psb>
Funny, this is how I got into technical writing. I was a secretary who took
engineer-ez and turned it into simple procedures and documents that could
be understood by management.
