RE: Tech writing saves journalism

[al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com]

Jessica Weissman wrote:
> ...I do know of a case in which a large government system was
> down for several days because documentation was incorrect in two ways:
> it left out something tiny but vital and stated something else slightly
> incorrectly.
>
> I don't know whether this fits the definition of unreasonable harm.  The
> system in question did not handle life or death matters, just lots of
> money going to citizens.
>

Hi Jessica,
This sounds more like a technical review/editing problem than a lack of
application by the writer to the task at hand; however, to be fiar, even
the best reviewer doesn't catch everything, and all of us have had
mediocre technical reviews where the reviewer focuses on the way a phrase
was twisted rather than the accuracy of the content.  Unfortunately, the
technical writer will be blamed for the error, but that's why we get paid
the big bucks....

Al



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