RE: For those who think punctuation matters: validation!

["Diana Ost" <Diana -dot- Ost -at- msmcorp -dot- com>]

I worked in law offices in college, was studying to be an attorney, and
work in policies and procedures now. Yes, I would have caught it, and
have found similar "whoops" in the past. IMHO, depends on your
background, really. I've edited audit reports and legal documents, as
well as very technical scientific papers. The author (attorney,
scientist, etc.) always has to approve the changes anyway. Or at least
they should. <g>

Diana Ost
Technical Writer/Reporting Analyst
Production Administration
Market Street Mortgage Corporation
diana -dot- ost -at- msmcorp -dot- com
Phone (727) 431-7209
Fax     (727) 724-9096
2650 McCormick Drive, Suite 200
Clearwater, Florida  33759
 
 
 
 

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
> techwr-l-bounces+diana -dot- ost=msmcorp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+diana -dot- ost=msmcorp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- 
com] On Behalf Of Beth Agnew
> Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 11:10 AM
> Cc: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Re: For those who think punctuation matters: validation!
> 
> It's also a good reminder that NO ONE should "edit" any 
> documentation that has a legal purpose, such as license 
> agreements, terms of service agreements and other legal 
> notices. They may indeed have had a copy editor who put the 
> comma IN according to rules of good grammar and it wasn't 
> noticed. Unfortunately, the legal beagles never share their 
> intentions with the lowly editors, so there would be no way 
> of knowing that adding a comma for readability was going to 
> substantively change the intent of the contract.
> 
> It's not hard to envision an earnest techwriter giving a 
> quick review to all text incorporated into a document and 
> dropping in the comma to be helpful, not realizing the 
> implications. No one would ever catch it. And I don't think 
> there's one of us who hasn't wanted to give the plain 
> language treatment to some hefty legalese.
> Here's a case in point that reminds us to be not quite so 
> zealous, at least with legal documents.
> > http://www.fftimes.com/index.php/9/2006-08-08/26511
> >   
> -- 
> Beth Agnew
> Catch the Buzz: http://bethbuzz.blogspot.com
> STC Presentation archived at:
> http://www.301url.com/podcasting
> 
> Professor, Technical Communication
> Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology
> Toronto, ON 416.491.5050 x3133
> http://www.tinyurl.com/83u5u
> 
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