So, how do you say 'you suck' without upsetting people?

[graculus]

Today's work-related question: is there a relatively non-contentious way of saying "your standard of written English is nothing like good enough for what you're being asked to do"? ;)

In other news, today I got paid for playing with Powerpoint all afternoon. I've been 'volunteered' to help with some training next month and as a result I've been writing training material and translating some of the stuff I've already written into Powerpoint slides. The offer was there to send the relevant information to our inhouse Training department and have them do it, but if they're all anything like A. who is supposed to be coordinating the training in question and who is about as much use as a chocolate teapot, I figured I would rather do it myself.

Comments

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's one of those "show, don't tell" kinds of moments? Beta their work like you would a piece of fanfiction, put in the corrections with the explanations why (politely), and then make the font red so your stuff stands out better. :)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

That's really hard when the person in question is someone where I find myself already close to losing my temper with her because she doesn't always understand what I'm saying till I've explained it a couple of times in different ways. *sigh*

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

Ack! Maybe you can't explain it to her? You just have to tell her how to fix it without explanation?

My boss does the marketing ads. These days, I proofread everything he does. That all started when I was in his office looking over his shoulder when he was putting text in a copy. I told him, "That's spelled wrong, need a comma there, you've got two spaces there, that needs to be capitalized, that doesnt' need to be capitalized," all in a very conversational way. Then he'd pretend that he was angry but make the changes anyway. :)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

And she would happily let me do it, as well as wanting me to type everything for her and indeed make decisions about her work, as well as wanting me to take her side in her ongoing dispute with her (apparently somewhat brainless) manager. There are serious limits to what I'm prepared to do... ;)

[khek.livejournal.com]

I find it amazing how many people really can't write. I thought that it was pretty common to get out of college and know the ins and outs of writing, but I guess I was wrong. My boss has an amazing grasp of people, and can get so many things done, but every time I see something she's written to go out to the public, my fingers just itch to get my hands on it to fix.

Asking questions like "Don't you think it might sound better if you switched to to this?" seems to work for me. Most of the time now I just have the paper handed to me with an "any suggestions?"

[superbadgirl]

The director of communications here has a tenuous grasp on grammar, and by that I mean he can't spell or punctuate beyond the 4th grade level. If he didn't have two grammar whizzes working for him, it would be embarrassing.

People don't even try or seem to care, really. Somewhere along the education line they didn't get pressed enough to do better, I'd imagine, and once a person gets in the habit of thinking it doesn't really matter it's hard to change.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I don't want to generalise but we do have a number of overseas workers here and while some of them have much better English than the locals, a number of them really struggle when it comes to formal writing of any kind. I guess that kind of thing really doesn't get taught anywhere so how would you ever learn it?

I don't know where the lady I'm really struggling with was educated but I'm pretty sure she did her professional qualification over here and I really wonder how she managed to get it if her written presentation is so sketchy.

[obelix]

Writing properly has gone the way of the Dodo bird. I find myself having to "simplify" my language whenever I do presentations as most of the audience doesn't grasp anything more then a grade 6 or 7 level, if that. And this is coming from a french person working in english with mostly english people ;-)

Unless it's urgent, I try to discuss why I want things written a certain way typically by explaining that it's an industry standard or mentioning sources and references. If it's urgent, the heck with it, I do it myself, I'm not paid enough to babysit and train others ;-)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I think that most of the people who're the worst problem just don't 'see' what's so different between what they're doing and how it ought to be - often we're talking about people who're writing in the same way they speak and it just doesn't work.

[rhade-rad.livejournal.com]

Point out to her that there is a requirement for all public documents to be fully accessible - following the Act [name escapes me at the moment, but the one which says disable people get treated the same as everyone else, which means writing in Plain English. Print off the pages from their website, give her some pointers on where she's not following this and suggest she try re-writing to meet the requirements and volunteer to proof-read the next version to "help" her.

Alternatively acquire a copy of the Osborne book on Good Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation for primary kids as a standard reference book. I have one and its very useful in being clear and then embarrassing people who should know that stuff.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

These aren't publically accessible documents but they're still writing them as a representative of the local authority so it's scary to think that the people creating these things have a professional qualification and yet still can't string together a coherent sentence in writing. What we're getting is people literally writing as they speak and not realising that, at times, the end result is almost incoherent. *sigh*

[nausica2.livejournal.com]

It looks like telling her might end up with you getting all her job, which is not a good idea... How about using some of your stuff as reference? Call it style guide?

Am not the best person to give advice. Every time someone in my office writes anything in English, they ask me for help, and when you have other things to do, it can get very annoying.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Writing well is an offshoot of *reading* - which isn't something huge numbers of people do, especially if they're too busy to read (or just don't like it). Most rules of grammar, etc are absorbed through reading (IMO) and making sure you're running your text through a checker/reader-checker.

Which does nothing to advise on your problem, of course. Just thought I'd poke my nose in.

[stop_thinking]

(is there a relatively non-contentious way of saying "your standard of written English is nothing like good enough for what you're being asked to do"?)

"I'd recommend that you get someone to proof-read this for you."