Re: Bit of a rant on Writer's Duties (tangent to: Who's Job is it to Layout a Book?)

[Peter Kleczka <pkleczka -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

--- "Wing, Michael J" <mjwing -at- INGR -dot- COM> wrote:
<snip>
> My point (alluded to earlier) is that content is NOT
> the Reviewer's
> responsibility.  It is the Writer's responsibility.
> The reviewer/SME is "A"
> resource, not the "ONLY" resource.  As a writer, YOU
> must research, write,
> verify, and refine content.

In our shop, content *IS* the reviewer's
responsibility
that is why we call them SME's. It is true that
we as writers cannot rely totally on SME's to provide
all the information needed to produce a document.
But when the SME signs off on the final draft
he or she is saying the content is accurate.
It is *NOT* the writer's responsibility,
to verify content.

That being said, we *DO* try to verify what the
SME's tell us because they often *think* they
have provided us with the information we need.
Or, quite often they are too close to the
product to provide us with the information that
a user (rather than a programmer) needs.

However when SMEs review the draft, it is their
responsibility to verify accuracy.  That is
the purpose of their review.  It sometimes
happens that they don't understand their role
in the review process and they attempt to
review for grammer and formatting.  They make
all kinds of suggestions (some absurd) about
what would be most effective for the reader.

Effective presentation of the facts is the
writer's responsibility. Content is the SME's
responsibility when the SME is acting as
a reviewer.

Thats my 2 cents.
Pete
(knp -at- execpc -dot- com)



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