18 January 2008

A Danger With Find & Replace

The Find & Replace function within word processing packages can be an absolute boon, saving valuable minutes of drudgery spent trawling through a document looking for and correcting instances of an incorrectly used word or phrase.

You should always, always, ALWAYS check the results of the changes though.

I was recently checking a Child Protection Policy document for a youth organisation and came across a rather strange heading in one of the appendices dealing with allegations of child abuse.

The wording in the original version of the document was :

"Procedure for managing the staff member against whom the allegation has been made"

The person who had produced the revised version of the document had obviously decided to globally replace the term "staff" with "club members". Sensible decision for a club environment with no employees as such.

The revised heading did read a little strangely though...

"Procedure for managing the club members member against whom the allegation has been made"

Perhaps this would be a better procedure after all!

No comments: