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

[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*