I thought my Eglish was bad...

[VydorScope]

I am reading some documentation from a vendor that is trying to do business with us. Top give you an idea of the intend audience for this document, I work at a university with 95k students. This vendor is trying to get in to do business with us. In their docs they have jewels like:

libreoffice.org, openoffice.org respectively. Are both open-source office application suite;include spreadsheet and word processing applications.

Yes that is complete text, starts the new sentence with the lower case "l" and carries on.

The default checkout center and organization named, "<company name>-- (administered by <company name>))" which translated means - the Checkout Center named ' <company name>' and managed by the ' <company name> 'Organization.

I removed the company name and replaced it with "<company name>" to protect the not so innocent. The rest is exactly as printed.

And then there is this sentence that gives the reason to import data:

For the puropse of created new data or correcting/changing previously entered data.

And one more jewel for your reading pleasure...

You can relocate relocating the resources to an 'offline' checkout center-the resource-id history will follow the reallocated resource.

I can understand a minor typo or two in a decent sized document, but if you are sending a document to a potential client, that you hope to make a big chunk cash from for an extended contract... at least higher a burger-flipping English grad student to edit it. Sheesh!

[orlok]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

I can understand a minor typo or two in a decent sized document, but if you are sending a document to a potential client, that you hope to make a big chunk cash from for an extended contract... at least higher hire a burger-flipping English grad student to edit it. Sheesh!

Fixed that for you.

(Sorry, couldn't resist...)

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by orlok

Fixed that for you.

(Sorry, couldn't resist...)

HA!

[Steven Lake]

I've run across this from fortune 500 companies and so called PHD's too, both of which should be English experts. One lady who signed with my publisher, a PHD as mentioned, wrote a book that was probably 20k in length and contained some 2k typos and some of the worst grammar I've seen in ages. The best part was, she refused to have her book edited claiming "I'm a PHD. I don't make mistakes!" lol.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

I am reading some documentation from a vendor that is trying to do business with us. Top give you an idea of the intend audience for this document, I work at a university with 95k students. This vendor is trying to get in to do business with us. In their docs they have jewels like:
<snip>

I've seen plenty like this; it comes from the contract being handed around among marketing execs who have no experience in technical writing (hence the ridiculous explanations for things like data import) and who re-write and edit, sometimes with Track Changes on in Word, and so miss doubled words and other atrocious grammar problems.

And then, of course, it doesn't get proofed before being sent off, because nobody in the marketing department is a designated proofreader, and the people in the documents department (1) are busy on other things and (2) aren't supposed to see docs they're not cleared for. Also, when something *is* handed to them, they're often not given instructions--they're told "format this according to our styleguide," and not "check for errors." Or they're told to check for ALL errors, including facts, and they have no idea whether the turnaround times are accurate or if that chart copied from the 1998 sales report is useful, so they shrug, fix the margins, and PDF the thing without looking at the text.

It's not that the people writing the proposal are illiterate; it's that it's written by committee, spread out over some time, and never read through as a final document before being sent off to a client.

Sending it back full of proofreader's marks could be an entertaining exercise, if you've got anyone who wants to burn the time on it.

[Dr. Drib]

Would you like me to correct the typo in your Title?

Perhaps it's for dramatic effect........?




Don
(Moderator)

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Would you like me to correct the typo in your Title?

Perhaps it's for dramatic effect........?


Don
(Moderator)

Yea ummm sure... that was my intention *nudge* *nudge*

But go ahead since maybe others won't get it.

[mXb]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

I am reading some documentation from a vendor that is trying to do business with us. Top give you an idea of the intend audience for this document, I work at a university with 95k students. This vendor is trying to get in to do business with us. In their docs they have jewels like:



Yes that is complete text, starts the new sentence with the lower case "l" and carries on.



I removed the company name and replaced it with "<company name>" to protect the not so innocent. The rest is exactly as printed.

And then there is this sentence that gives the reason to import data:



And one more jewel for your reading pleasure...



I can understand a minor typo or two in a decent sized document, but if you are sending a document to a potential client, that you hope to make a big chunk cash from for an extended contract... at least higher a burger-flipping English grad student to edit it. Sheesh!

I can see another typo..........anyone ??

[mXb]

...but yes I agree with you.

Many years ago I saw an advert from a company who sold word processing software and their advert had a typo on roughly every third line !

I replied to them in kind, asking why they didn't run their advert through their own Spell Checker !

Also I have noticed that the cheaper eBooks appear to have been proof read by people whose first language is not english, and learnt the language by listening rather than writing it.

e.g. "given" instead of "giving"........"wages" instead of "wagers" (that was on 2 consecutive lines so not a typo)

...and I plead old age and poor eyesight for my own tipos...

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

It's not that the people writing the proposal are illiterate; it's that it's written by committee, spread out over some time, and never read through as a final document before being sent off to a client.

Having been a technical writer for a time, I fully concur with this assumption. Yes, the documents in some big companies are absolutely committee'd to death. The best part was writing a perfect chapter explaining everything that was needed as directed only to watch it thrown to the shark tank (ie, the committees) and absolutely shredded. Hence why I'm not a technical writer anymore. lol. :P

Originally Posted by mXb

e.g. "given" instead of "giving"........"wages" instead of "wagers" (that was on 2 consecutive lines so not a typo)

Sometimes that's more a result of local dialect than actual typos. I've quite often caught myself using wrong words in a sentence simply because that's how it's spoken locally, proper grammar and enunciation be damned. For example, around here it's extremely common to hear people say "fer noth'n" instead of "for nothing". Even I do that. So to me some typos are expected. Most aren't, but when you toss in a variable like dialect, all bets are off.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by mXb

I can see another typo..........anyone ??

Yeah, I see it: you've got two question marks but you only need one.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Yea ummm sure... that was my intention *nudge* *nudge*

But go ahead since maybe others won't get it.

This one is entirely up to you.

If you want it there for dramatic effect, or even for a bit of humor.....your call.


Don
(Moderator)

[kennyc]

I kinda like it teh way it is.

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I kinda like it teh way it is.

Eye Seccond That.

[Anna Drake]

Oh, come on folks. Give us a beak.