Re: Workpersonship

["D. Margulis" <ampersandvirgule -at- WORLDNET -dot- ATT -dot- NET>]

Lonie,

The suggestion that you (and Philip Sharman, earlier) make, that of
writing to the company to let them know about the problem, is a sensible
one I should have thought of immediately. (I've never been shy about
writing to companies when their products or services are unsatisfactory,
and I usually get good results. I have no idea why it didn't occur to me
to do so on this occasion.)

I'm sharing both posts with the engineers who brought this to my
attention, and one of the three of us will end up writing to the
company.

Meanwhile, another techwrler wrote me off list for the URL of the page I
was alluding to and is going to follow up by offering his services to
the company in question. How's _that_ for positive thinking!

Thanks,

Dick


LonieH -at- aol -dot- com wrote:
>
> Howdy,
>
> There is no telling the background on this piece. The company could
> have subscribed to the old school and had it prepared by an engineer
> or a secretary or someone else with no training or desire to write. Who
> knows? It is obvious, though, that they either have no clue their writing
> is worthless or they don't care.
>
> IMHO, whenever I see poor technical writing it is my duty to my profession
> to notify the company from which it came. If they have a writer on staff, they
> should know their writing needs improvement (whether or not they are willing
> to
> change it). If the company does not value writing, it needs to rethink its
> attitude.
>
> Too many times we have discussed how little we are valued. The only way
> a company will know better is by feedback. I explain this to my friends and
> colleagues when they complain about a poorly written manual and encourage
> them to let the company know.
>
[--snipped--]