A handful of days ago I was asked by OHSU to testify at the Oregon State Legislature. Well, that request morphed into something very different. I still said I would help them by providing written testimony in favor of a request to sell bonds to fund a Capital Construction project. I submitted my signed one-page written piece yesterday.
I was quite shocked when the OHSU representative wanted to make corrections to my signed document. Corrections? A few email exchanges later I learned that I do not follow the APA Formatting and Style Guide among other things – like my inappropriate use of dashes. I wanted to scream Are you serious?
I refused to make the changes.
I’m left quite bothered by this. I know that this person from OHSU did not want to change my content, per se. But, they wanted to change my voice. When you ask for a patients perspective that is what you are going to get. I can’t help but wonder what other patient perspectives they have corrected and to what extent?
Aquarius vs. Cancer 
were they style changes (commas, dashes, etc only) or substantive content changes. they thought it was too casual sounding, not scientific or stiff, stoic enough sounding or what? i’m happy you refused and i hope they do not change any of the content on their own! .and also if you dont want to respond to me no problem – just happy you refused and writing because i’m shocked too.
oh and i see where you wrote above “content was not changed” but still i know exactly what you mean about your VOICE!
I’m still miffed. But, life will go on and I will think long and hard before I get myself into a similar situation.
Hope your surviving the weather! xo
Perhaps they wanted your input, but in their format? Seems like they are missing the forest for the trees, or vise versa. Your voice would have had much more of an impact than a scripted, spell-checked, double spaced memo!
Wake up people!
It all worked out…eventually. But, gosh, I was very upset!
You go girl! I doubt if following the format will change it’s intended use at the legislature or affect their ability to seek funding. What counts is your voice. You took time to write, what I am sure is an outstanding document, sharing your perspective with your voice. I am hopeful they will value the content over format issues and honor your request to listen to your voice.
Eventually, it all worked out. The document is pretty damn good…bad hyphen use and all! 🙂
Your assault on stale office formatting is to be applauded.