Re: What's a girl to do?

Subject: Re: What's a girl to do?
From: Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- marvin -dot- eng -dot- sun -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 14:18:56 -0700 (PDT)

In article ORG -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com, wlewis -at- nclogic -dot- com (Wendy Lewis) writes:
>I'm frustrated and you have been elected to hear it.
>
>Our new corporate marketing person just sent me, and a few of the managers,
>Release Notes that he just wrote for the latest release of our software,
>with a note of "is this ok?".
>
>He mentioned that he took it straight from the text that I sent him with a
>few changes. I don't know where he got the original text, because the only
>thing I recognize are the topics. Rather than spending a week rewriting it,
>insulting the man, putting the schedule behind, and giving myself more of a
>reputation than I need at corporate, I think I'll send him back a note that
>says...
>
>"Other than the inconsistency of tense, gross overuse of passive voice,
>unnecessarily large words, technical jargon, sentences that should be broken
>into *paragraphs*, and stressing the unimportant details over the major
>improvements, yea... it's fine!"
>
>What would you do?
>

First of all, resist all temptation to send a sarcastic note back. It
may feel good now but it will come back to haunt you later.

I'd send a note, copying everyone who was copied on his mail, saying
that the text appears to have been altered substantially from the text
you gave him. Then mention that you think this newer version needs an
edit. Or, if there are only a few content changes from what you gave
him and what he produced, perhaps suggest incorporating just the
substance of what he added to your original. If you have time, you may
want to draft a version that does that and attach it -- people find it
harder to argue with a fait accompli.

Above all, be polite and professional. You can do a primal
scream or take a well-deserved drink once you get home!


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