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Subject:Re: What would you do? From:Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET> Date:Mon, 29 Jul 1996 14:04:00 EST
At 11:48 AM 7/29/96 -0700, you wrote:
<lots of awful examples deleted to save my lunch>
>I just don't have the fortitude to proceed to page 5.
>Are my standards really *that* unreasonably high?
Nope. When you write for a living, you need to know the standards. It's one
thing to sling jargon, misspellings and the like at one another on this
list. We're often tired, dispirited, or rushed when we do it. But real
material, released to God and the world, especially as samples of how well
things can be done, needs to be honed and shined. This wasn't. It sounds as
though some marketing master who's semantically challenged culled this thing
from a random file and used it (presumably) because it looked good. It could
be, of course, that the writers and editors are far better than this and
it's just a marketing snafu. But I'd be cautious and ask to talk with some
workers in the vineyards.
>Obviously, I won't be calling on these contractors any time soon.
>Should I *tell* them? (Maybe I just did??? ;-) )
I'd doubt that you just told them anything on the list. In my experience,
it's the better and more advanced people who seek out a list like this one.
I've yet to actually see anybody write to this list with that degree of
ineptitude.
If you need this new contractor, perhaps because you're low on reliable help
in the area, then perhaps you should call them in and ask the rep to bring a
couple of writers, just to soothe your fears. Or ask for some more samples,
which should tell the tale also. But yes, I'd point it out. It could be that
their marketing manager is squashing business and the rest of the company
may not even know it.
>Sue Gallagher
>sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com
> -- The _Guide_ is definitive.
> Reality is frequently inaccurate.
Tim Altom
Vice President, Simply Written, Inc.
317.899.5882 (voice) 317.899.5987 (fax)
FrameMaker support ForeHelp support
Makers of DuoFrame, giving you online help and paper
documentation from a single parent FrameMaker document.
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