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zotz's post about adminstrative incompetence triggered this rant, which I felt deserved to be a post of its own, rather than a comment]
As you may know, I work in a computer software firm. I am constantly appalled by the number of people I encounter, within the company and working for our customers, whose jobs explicitly include the production and maintenance of documents (that's to say: managers of technically-oriented teams, people reviewing/signing-off specifications and even some programmers) who can't drive a word processor for toffee.
Page-break-by-hitting-return-lots. Paragraphs using a slightly different font halfway through a big block of text. Slight changes in font size at random points.
Of course, there are associated failures when it comes to producing coherently-structured documents. Headings that are just big text. Random paragraph breaks (if any). Lack of a table of contents (less of a problem in a 5-page document, but a PITA in a 40-page spec). Lack of even a single paragraph outlining the purpose of the document.
Don't even get me STARTED on grammar.
I mourn the passing of the typist as a specialist role. I'm sure that many organisations would benefit hugely from the improvements in communication that would result from sprinkling a few competent typists/word processor operators about the place. A few good secretaries, and maybe some decent filing clerks (even if they are just juggling files on a hard drive somewhere) would probably be a boon, too.
[disintegrates into incoherent rambling about the lack of respect for competence, regardless of the perceived status of the job being done, in modern society]
zotz's post about adminstrative incompetence triggered this rant, which I felt deserved to be a post of its own, rather than a comment]As you may know, I work in a computer software firm. I am constantly appalled by the number of people I encounter, within the company and working for our customers, whose jobs explicitly include the production and maintenance of documents (that's to say: managers of technically-oriented teams, people reviewing/signing-off specifications and even some programmers) who can't drive a word processor for toffee.
Page-break-by-hitting-return-lots. Paragraphs using a slightly different font halfway through a big block of text. Slight changes in font size at random points.
Of course, there are associated failures when it comes to producing coherently-structured documents. Headings that are just big text. Random paragraph breaks (if any). Lack of a table of contents (less of a problem in a 5-page document, but a PITA in a 40-page spec). Lack of even a single paragraph outlining the purpose of the document.
Don't even get me STARTED on grammar.
I mourn the passing of the typist as a specialist role. I'm sure that many organisations would benefit hugely from the improvements in communication that would result from sprinkling a few competent typists/word processor operators about the place. A few good secretaries, and maybe some decent filing clerks (even if they are just juggling files on a hard drive somewhere) would probably be a boon, too.
[disintegrates into incoherent rambling about the lack of respect for competence, regardless of the perceived status of the job being done, in modern society]
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 06:00 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 08:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 08:47 (UTC)This has also translated into TERRIBLE content on websites, as hand-holding applications for creating web pages let just anybody put content up on the company site. Typos! Excessive use of bold or italics! Stuffing graphics into spots too big or too small for them!
A friend who is a technical writer mourns the passing of the executive's personal secretary, as well. Company-wide communications used to be dictated to somebody who had a good idea how to turn them into solid sentences. Now executives write their own emails, and frankly, some of them just shouldn't!
no subject
Date: 2004-12-23 00:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-23 09:14 (UTC)However, as I outlined in the user info for the community, I want to restrict posting to just me for now. It would be a regular journal, except I want to leave the option open to allow others in later.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-27 13:07 (UTC)hey! you dunno me
Date: 2004-12-28 18:58 (UTC)do you use aim/aol?
if you do can you please IM me, my sn is: nizhes
i got a question :-P
Re: hey! you dunno me
Date: 2004-12-28 20:52 (UTC)Feel free to ask the question here.