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Subject:Re: Offshore writers and editors From:eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 3 Nov 2003 12:36:18 -0500
"Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com> wrote on 11/03/2003 12:06:02 PM:
> Right, it's not the country by itself, Andrea. It's the
> claim that the quality
> is as good as that of native English speakers when that
> claim is patently
> false. We don't normally have provenance on the bad
> writing we encounter. We do now.
As someone who works in an office full of Francophones, I can attest to the
frustration of ESL writers defending their poor work as impeccable AND others
that put my own writing to shame. So the whole ESL vs. native argument is a
sham. Indeed the irony is probably that the claims of the editor with the badly
edited resume may be true. That bad quality IS as good as many native English
speakers.
Provenance don't mean squat. The fact that (not directed at bonnie BTW) you
personally or others you know may be unemployed or under-employed makes the
frustration understandable, but it's besides the point where the replacements
come from or where they are located. The example mentioning Idaho is right on
the mark. Can't paint them all just because you've found one bad example.
Here in Montreal the range in costs between rents in one part of the city versus
another would allow one company/individual to seriously undercut another while
still maintaining the same level of quality and service. The fact that there are
bad low-priced service providers illustrates nothing. There are bad high priced
service providers as well. The only thing that really holds true is quality,
price, delivery, pick two. Keep that in mind whenever considering options for
service providers.
Bonnie, if you can come up with more than one single example perhaps you'd have
a case. But you'd need a complete ROI study to analyse the business case and the
actual risks of contracting overseas.
The other thing to remember, as depressing as it might seem, is that best
doesn't always win in the marketplace. Just look at what happened to BETA. Your
choice is to become VHS or figure out your place in the VHS world, or to remain
BETA but identify your niche and sell specifically to those that value what BETA
has to offer and are willing to pay the premium. Then of course, ultimately
everyone has to yield to the next market driven choice. To survive you must
change and adapt.
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