Friday, June 16, 2006

I can will write good today

I am sooooo drained. Today I did some major overhaul on a document that was so poorly written, I was actually almost crying in frustration. It was sent to me to make sure that punctuation conformed to the client company's standards, and that usage of their trademarked terms was correct per a memo from their legal department.

I couldn't do it. Simply reading this document was like pushing my brain through oatmeal. It was almost as if a second grader had been asked to write an essay on how he fixed his installation bugs over the summer. Punctuation was the least of this writer's worries.

I felt insulted. Honestly. Some one considered this document finished enough to be proofread? Some one wanted to put it into my hands so that it would then bear the stamp of my own work? Look, I bust my butt to completely conceptualize a complex idea, to really understand the issue to be communicated, and then to do so with language that is PROFESSIONAL, is CONCISE, is LUCID. Whoever wrote this document did none of that. And then had the gall to ask that my company check for punctuation and consistent usage of the terms "click" vs. "click on" etc. I'm sorry. No.

On the other hand, I got a key to the office today, and I cashed my first paycheck yesterday. My cousin's getting married tomorrow, and the Rice Owls (as well as two of my best friends) are in Omaha for the College World Series. Life is a net postive at the moment, so I'll just do my best to enjoy it!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I usually end up having to work with people who speak about as well as that document was wrote. ;-) I spent an hour and a half explaining to someone the difference between email and an email client.

I do feel for you, though, especially after "proofreading" an article written by the department's technical writer. This guy was hired to write and I effectively overhauled the whole thing just to make it bearable. Granted, no one was going to read the thing anyway, but still! I'm glad he received such high praise for the finished work. :-P