Observations on work mid-project

[scarlettina]

I'm working with a co-worker to revise copy targeted toward lay people to help them understand something both technically and legally difficult. What I'm finding fascinating is the speed of interaction. It highlights different work styles, different emphases, and different information-processing capabilities. I'm turning things around fairly quickly; she's slower and more deliberate. I'm also seeing where the lines are drawn between communication specialists and subject matter experts or SMEs. The SME goes looking for accuracy and often ends up tangled in the language, providing passive sentence structure, more complicated vocabulary and so on. I read what she's sent, redraft it for the lay person in a more effective and economical way and send it back pretty quickly, 9 times out of 10 getting it right the first time. It's been an interesting process. And heartening to my sense of confidence and accomplishment as well.