Copyediting

Most business writers, technical writers, and administrative assistants have to edit documents created by themselves or others. Typically, there are two main types of edits:

• Technical/content edits - Is the content complete and accurate?
• Copyedits - Is the text grammatically correct, checked for spelling, consistent in usage, and appropriately formatted? Is the text consistent with illustrations?

Copyediting is kind of a pain, but some things help:

• Checklists for items like consistency of headings, consistency of line spacing, and consistency of about a hundred other things. Click this link for an example: http://www.orrnet.biz/TW Course - Free/Week 8 DevelopmentProductionUsability/Editing Checklists.doc
• Using copyediting symbols when marking up paper copy for edits. Using these ensures consistent understanding of the editorial intention at the time the changes are implemented in the word processor. Click here to download a copyediting symbols chart: http://www.orrnet.biz/TW%20Course%20-%20Free/Week%208%20DevelopmentProductionUsability/Copyediting%20Symbols.doc
• Using online editing tools like MS Word's Track Changes feature. This toolset helps eliminate paper and allows group editing. See Word help documentation.

Outside Training Experts as Mentors

Corporations need to produce technology training fast and inexpensively, but sometimes the lack of internal resources or expertise in training development forces them to look for help from outside training consultants. Four issues arise immediately when companies go outside:

• Consultants have to be brought up to speed on the industry, the technology to be trained, and on the corporate culture and business situation.
• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from the company have to take time from their regular jobs to train consultants, review their designs and work products, and attend pilot tests.
• All this internal activity plus the consultants' fees make outside training consultants an expensive proposition.
• Training and process solutions developed by outsiders may meet resistance from insiders not involved in the development process. The resistance may be the result of a “not manufactured here” mentality; partially it may also result from fear of loss of jobs or prestige.

A simple shift of focus can result in faster development, automatic “own-in” of the training, and knowledge transfer into the organization. Here’s what the shift involves:

• Bring in high-level instructional designers as mentors to your own staff, who will do the design and development work themselves, perhaps with supplemental developers from outside.
• The mentors can create templates for task analysis, document design, and other tasks and train insiders to use them. They review work products and pass on their knowledge of instructional design to insiders.
• The mentors do not have to obtain detailed industry or product knowledge to be useful. The staff members already have this knowledge. The mentor can concentrate on helping the insiders shape the training to be effective.
• The outside instructional designers can also lead process formation, documentation or process improvement groups, if processes need to be worked on before the training development begins.
• Insiders write initial drafts of training materials and exercises, which are reviewed by the outside instructional design consultants for proper instructional design and format. This is a lot more efficient than having to teach the outsider industry and product knowledge, have them write the documents, then, have the insiders review them.
• Finally, all this participation by insiders in design, writing, and editing documents and forming business processes means that they own the processes and training. Trying to get “buy-in” of externally produced programs isn’t necessary.

Social Networks are Killing Email

Source: Usability In The News; 7/19/2006; 2:32:46 PM.
Social Networks are Killing Email. Evolution of social networking and IM are reducing email use..." According to my friend Bill, who teaches there, 92% of the 45,000 students at Michigan State University have Facebook accounts. That's a lot of people! Probably more than passed their latest finals, or more than will graduate on time. In addition, so many students use chatting tools and social networking sites that MSU is even considering phasing out the #1 internet tool of the last 30 years: email accounts. Because students are online all the time and messaging through other means, there is little need for personal, school-based email accounts. Everybody simply uses the built-in tools in the virtual spaces they inhabit.When I was in school it was all about email. You'll have an alumni email account for life, I was told. There was an assumption that I would need an email account for life. Maybe that's not true anymore." continued ... (Via Bokardo) http://www.usernomics.com/news/2006/07/social-networks-are-killing-email.html

Instant Messaging for Business

I've been using instant messaging (IM) for business since 2003, when I was on a project with Hewitt Associates and witnessed the following: I needed the answer to a technical question to ensure the accuracy of the training materials I was writing. I phoned the tech lead several times, getting voicemail each time. I emailed him several times with no reply. I was on a deadline and needed the answer that day. Someone suggested IM. Hewitt used Lotus SameTime, so I fired it up and sent the guy an instant message.

Presto, he answered immediately. He apologized for not getting back to me, told me that he was in a web conference meeting, answering a backlog of email, handling two phone calls and six instant messages--all concurrently. He gave me a link to a resource that would answer my question and signed off. I saw instantly the value of IM--it demands people's immediate attention--they know you know they are online, so they answer.

Later I was in another project in Atlanta. Several team members sat around a table in a meeting. The culture allowed people to multitask on their laptops during meetings. Only about 10% of the meeting was of interest to me and my co-worker across the table. We used AOL IM to trade information, and a few wry comments on the meeting, without interrupting the meeting. Meanwhile, we continued our main work, which was writing.

So, it is with considerable interest that I share the following article:

AOL launches IM for business users. AOL launched AIM Pro PE, a version of its instant messaging software with new features for business users.

[Computerworld Breaking News]

Entoosiasm!!!!

In another life, I worked as a sales person for a pharmaceuticals company called Warner-Chilcott. My favorite instructor in sales training was a guy named Hyat Kahn. Hyat had come from a wealthy family in Pakistan, but had decided not to rely on his daddy’s money, but to make it on his own in America. One of his assignments was to teach us how to sell Gelusil®, the company’s antacid product.

We had learned already that Gelusil had two ingredients--aluminum hydroxide and magnesium trisilicate. Hyat began one training session by asking us how many ingredients Gelusil had. We all answered, sort of bored, “Two.”

He replied, “No, it’s THREE!--aluminum hydroxide, magnesium trisilicate, and ENTOOSIASM!” This is how he pronounced enthusiasm.

He said that there was really not that much difference in effectiveness among the various antacids like Gelusil®, Mylanta®, and Maalox®, but we could make a difference in our sales with physicians by being enthusiastic.

At the time, I thought it was funny, and I tried to believe that physicians would respond better to rational arguments. Later, after selling to MDs for six years, I concluded that many are very rational, but in cases like Gelusil® and other drugs that are pretty much equal, enthusiasm does carry the day.

Enthusiasm is infectious! People like to be around enthusiastic people and people catch the enthusiasm. I think this is true in all areas from sports to business to religion to poetry and art. People feed off energy and conviction. Too much of our lives is dull and gray. Enthusiasm brings bright color to everything.

I once heard a motivational speaker say, “Enthusiasm creates in the listener the expectation that the speaker will find a way to accomplish what is proposed.” So, enthusiasm also creates credibility!

The conclusion is that anyone who is trying to persuade others to buy a product, an idea, or themselves, needs “entoosiasm” in their arsenal. That’s the secret ingredient for success. David Orr

Corporate Culture, Conformity and Leadership

Back in the late Fifties, a best-selling book was called “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.” It is about a man caught in the need to conform to corporate culture, the unofficial uniform of which was the gray flannel suit. Conforming was really big in those days.

In the early Sixties, before the Aquarian revolution hit, my girlfriend Martha took a course in psychology called “The Psychology of Adjustment,” the central thesis of which was that people, to be healthy psychologically, have to adjust to social and personal conditions, including the expectations of others. In the general populace, this ethos was more likely to be expressed by a concern with “what people will think” about a particular action, thought, or belief. Psychologically, I believe, this ethos amounts to an emphasis on what is called the persona”-- the polished image that a person presents to the public, as opposed to the person’s self-image, including flaws, and shadow, the parts of the personality unacknowledged consciously by the person.

The military and business tend to define a person by what he or she does and by the image/persona the persona presents in public. A person can be profoundly unhappy inside but present a polished, positive persona and do good work, and that’s all business or the military cares about. The two cultures are similar because they are both warrior cultures, in which action and discipline are all that matter.

None of this is usually stated overtly in business, but everyone communicates “the rules” in subtle ways. (In the military, leaders overtly state the rules in formulations like, “I don’t give sh** how you feel or what you want, just do it!”) Corporate culture likes to pretend it has a caring side because it is part of the general culture, but, usually, this “caring” is part of the business strategy--in other words, part of the corporate persona or public image. Corporation may say genuinely, “We care about our employees,” but you can be sure they think the caring is good business.

I believe businesses and the military should be the way they are--dedicated to winning--either profits or wars. I believe that it is good to care for people and that people appreciate it when they are cared for and are loyal to those who do. Therefore, “taking care of the troops” is the first law of leadership in the military and in business.

The complete law is “Take care of the troops, and they will take care of you.” Sometimes taking care of the troops in the long term involves asking them to make sacrifices in the short term--for example, a soldier or worker may be depressed and not feel like working today. Both organizations will demand that he or she work anyway, particularly, if today happens to be a critical event for the company or military unit.

“Gee, Sarge, I don’t feel like storming Omaha Beach today!” I can’t imagine this approach working for the military, any more than I can imagine, “Gee, Boss, I know this presentation today is critical to our getting this national account, but I really don’t feel like doing it.” If the company or military unit doesn’t demand the sacrifice, the overall interest of all the members of the unit or organization will be compromised.

However, before and after the battle or critical business event, leaders had better look to the needs of the followers. Leaders must avoid a constant crisis mode, and give followers time for family and other personal needs, see to the professional growth of the follower, and give recognition for the sacrifices and achievements of the follower. David Orr

Writing Lesson: Structure Sentences for Clarity

Compare the sentence above to the sentence below. Which one would you rather rely on to get your job done?

The database is updated periodically.

If you chose the second sentence, you must be psychic because the writer left out so much information.

• Technical writers write for people who are trying to accomplish business or technical tasks.
• Make sentences clear, concise, and accurate.
• Make responsibility for actions and relationships clear and explicit.
• Make related conditions explicit.