You know what never works out well? Letting technical communicators get involved in legal documents. When I do it I end up in tears; when I watch others do it I find myself shaking my head and saying "Bless their hearts."
We want it to be clear; lawyers want it to stand up in court. I've come to accept that there just is not much overlap in that Venn diagram.
Solution? Let them have their way.
2 comments:
The other day, I asked a developer to look at a correction they wanted made. I had rewritten some text they sent me to make it fit into DITA. Their reply was "It's okay, but I like it the way I wrote it better." I felt like writing him back and explaining how my way was in fact better because, after all, it allowed the short description to stand alone if needed. . . blah, blah, blah. I didn't need his approval, so I was just making trouble for myself. I'm so sure a long explanation would have really endeared me to my developer and made me feel more confident about my writing in the future - *rolls eyes*. I stepped away from the keyboard. Thanks for the advice Mike.
Amen.
I've been down that road and it ain't pretty.
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