RE: Most embarasssing error (was Finding errors in manuals)

["V. Camgros" <camgros -at- mindspring -dot- com>]

At the risk of flooding the list and annoying the mods, my contributions to the list of shame:

During a walk-through/acceptance test for a military contract technical manual, our Navy captain reviewer took one look at the COVER of a manual and said "I'm afraid I'm just going to have to reject these out of hand."

During the rush to create a cover for a meticulously written manual, one of us had blithely typed "Department of the Army".

Ooops.

Strangely, this second one is another cover. My quality in tech pubs instructor stressed the elusive nature of errors  by telling of a time when one of her (staff's, I think) manuals went out with a 60-point IMB on the cover.

She worked for that large blue mainframe company. 

We've all done them. If you say you haven't, you're either fibbing or living on a large river in Egypt!

regards,
Vickie

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Van Boening, Tammy" <tammy -dot- vanboening -at- Fiserv -dot- com>
>Sent: May 17, 2007 2:11 PM
>To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>Subject: RE: Most embarasssing error (was Finding errors in manuals)
>
>So, I was the author of a hardware manual for a training class for a
>bunch of truck drivers years ago - seriously, the Hooters T-shirt, let's
>go to a strip club after work kind - and this made it through in the
>manual (to my absolute horror and to their absolute delight) -
>
>Instead of "tighten the wrench", it was "tighten the wench" - ah yes -
>that helped break the ice in the class. After something like that, I
>rarely get heartburn over a typo or two in a manual.
>
>TVB
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: techwr-l-bounces+tammy -dot- vanboening=fiserv -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+tammy -dot- vanboening=fiserv -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
>On Behalf Of Combs, Richard
>Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 3:00 PM
>To: Connie Giordano; Michelle Vina-Baltsas; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>Subject: RE: Finding errors in manuals
>
>Connie Giordano wrote: 
> 
>> I literally just came across this in a manual I'm editing right now:
>> 
>> "Press <ENTER> to exit:"  Hope that makes you feel better ;-)
>
>Well, it sure looks funny, but it's not necessarily _wrong_. 
>
>After all, we Windows users click Start to quit. ;-)
>
>Richard
>
>
>------
>Richard G. Combs
>Senior Technical Writer
>Polycom, Inc.
>richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
>303-223-5111
>------
>rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
>303-777-0436
>------
>
>
>
>
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