Land of Oz

edittting

I do writing for a living. Most of what I do is technical writing as opposed to marketing writing (or fluff as some call it). Most of what I do is supposed to be reviewed by someone. That someone will make their revisions and then send it back to me to update and then finally I post it online or have it printed.

Here's the question I have. The editor is one of those who likes to re-write stuff in his style, and makes sure to really nitpick things I've written (like isn't to is not or do not to don't). He will change procedures which are technically accurate into a "marketing" style prose that in all honesty is inaccurate. Another problem is that he will require things written in a certain manner for the first draft and then change that in subsequent drafts, and probably change them again. For example, we may describe a feature in general terms and then spell out specifics about it, while in the second revision, we describe specifics and after that tell the customer what they are using.

So, what do I do when he has errors in his revisions? For example, "we like it's color" or "... going home.The truck..." It drives me crazy. And when I get this stuff he makes me feel like I have no idea of what is expected -- which is true, because while I followed his last explanation, his new expectation is once again different.

What I've decided to do is to revise to his latest version (however poorly written it is) and then once it's online and under his radar, go in and correct all the little typos and such that he's added to the mix. Oh, and one last thing. Project requests from his office are usually "we need this now" and then it sits for a month, and then all of a sudden, it's we need the latest version tomorrow for a launch. Sigh... Dilbert is alive and well in my company.

BTW, don't look for acccuracy here -- this is escapism for me and I'll rite how I want to write.