RE: Reviewers (WAS: Re: Using Word for drafts?)

[Candis Condo <candisc@xxxxxxx>]

I can't resist commenting on this message also. I believe that engineers and
other non-writing types comment on format, grammar, spelling etc because
they find it far easier than to comment on technical content, completeness
or organization.

I too point out that they are the experts on the subject matter -- not I and
they are responsible for the technical accuracy of the document. That
usually catches their attention.

Candis

Candis L. Condo
Manager, Technical Communications
NCD

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Gruener [mailto:bill.gruener@att.net]
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 9:31 AM
To: Allen Schaaf; framers@omsys.com
Subject: Re: Reviewers (WAS: Re: Using Word for drafts?)


Hi All,

I couldn't resist commenting on this message. I worked in educational
publishing for 25 years, and during that time published 150 books and
reviewed 4-10 times as many manuscripts. No matter how many times in how
many ways I told reviewers to focus on content, I would always hear, "It
doesn't look like a book."

Today as a technical writer, I spin PDFs from the compiled/generated Frame
file, send to the reviewers, and politely, but quietly, ignore comments
about formatting. If need be, I stress to the reviewer that they should
focus on the content. This approach seems to work.

Not here, but somewhere in the research, there might be some interesting
questions to answer as to how much the formatting affects the delivery of
the content. Does that have anything to do with they medium is the message.

Bill Gruener
Technical Writer
Schneider Electric
North Andover, MA
william.gruener@modicon.com

> From: Allen Schaaf <soundbyte@sound-by-design.com>
> Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 11:43:57 -0700
> To: framers@omsys.com
> Subject: Reviewers (WAS: Re: Using Word for drafts?)
> 
> My solution to the reviewers issue is to tell them in a cover letter that
> "...this draft is for content and if you see typographical, stylistic, or
> grammatical mistakes, please note them and thank you.  But please
> concentrate your energies on the content you know about because I might
> have gotten it wrong."
> 
> This seems to send them in the right direction.  And those who love to
show
> others will concentrate on content to see if, indeed, you have gotten it
> wrong.  They just glow with pride.
> 
> It's no skin off my nose to make a better manual and if I can give someone
> a little cheap pleasure in the process, that's great.
> 
> Allen Schaaf
> 
> 
> 
> At 09:05 AM 6/3/02, David Neeley wrote:
>> Of course, if *no* reviewer notes you "forgot to italicize the title of
>> boox X" and *you* don't notice it, the results can be somewhat
embarrassing!
>> 
>> David
>> 
>> 
>> ------------original message---------------
>> 
>>> *  If the draft authors want final formatting control, they are in the
>>> wrong profession. Cogent comments about table formatting relative to
data
>>> presentation is useful, but 30 tech reviewers  telling you that you
forgot
>>> to italicize the title of book X (and ignoring gross errors of fact) are
>>> not.
>> 
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