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Subject:Non-English Proofers From:Daniel Wise <dewise -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 1 Mar 1997 14:42:44 -0600
Colleagues,
I would like to share a "lack-of-success" story with you. Our company was
redoing a multi-volume set of technical specifications for a nuclear power
plant. Engineering asked Pubs for a cost estimate and then informed us that
they were sending the job "off shore" because the cost savings amounted to
90 percent of our estimate.
The methodology used by the (I think Sri Lankan) contractor was to have
typists who could not read English type two simultaneous copies of the
material. Obviously the typists were keying by rote. Then they
electronically "bumped" the copies. Theory was that when there was no
match, there was an error in one of the copies. Both copies were checked
for typos, again by rote.
The end product was delivered and it was a disaster. Engineering trashed
the cheapie product and asked Pubs to do the job for them.
This is not quite the same as using Chinese proofers to compare manuscript
and repro, but it is one methodology that is being peddled to the
unsuspecting. YMMV
Dan Wise
dewise -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
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