People who read but don't understand

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

Man of Honour
Joined
29 Mar 2003
Posts
57,748
Location
Stoke on Trent
Over the last 9 months I've become to realise how people don't read letters that you send them.
After dozens of phone calls from parents, schools and work placements I decided that my latest letter could not be misunderstood even by a Port vale supporter.
Some of these people are very clever (teachers, managers of Day Centres, hospital Ward Managers etc) but after just having another phone call at 22:15 I had to rant.

Here is the main body of the letter I sent out on Monday and it is slightly altered to take account of who I'm sending it to.
On my main letter I have highlighted in red the main points below and the letter obviously looks a lot better.

Dear Parent/Guardian of ..........

Your daughter has now come to the end of her Young Apprenticeship and is now on her 4th/elective placement.
She will be attending Hanley Day centre (full address below) on these dates -
Jan 9, 16, 23, 30 Feb 6, 13 Mar 6, 13, 20

On the following dates she will be with me at the CHSA at the City General on -
Feb 20, 27 Mar 27 Apr 3

She will attend College on the following dates -
Jan 8, 15, 22, 29 Feb 5, 12. 19, 26 Mar 5, 12, 19, 26 Apr 2, 9

Please make sure your daughter blah blah blah

------------- End

So far I have had 10 phone calls from parents, 3 phone calls from teachers and 9 phone calls from work placements who can't understand the main body of the letter.
The father who just rang me couldn't understand the letter so I asked -
Where will Emma be on Jan 30?
Hanley Day Centre
Where will she be on Mar 27?
City General
Where will she be on Apr 2?
College
What don't you understand?
Hmmmmmmm

Please tell me that if you were a parent, teacher or work placement area that you could understand what I wrote.
If not then make some better suggestions because it really blags my head.
 
Last edited:
I understand. It could've been made easier to read though by using a table and having the days in chronological order with the location next to them.
 
It's understandable but it's not the best written letter I've ever seen. Infact it's a bit of a mess and the way it's been done is amateurish at best but not to the extent that its unreadable.
 
'She will be attending....'? Are you psychic dave? ;)
I would have written 'She needs to attend...' or 'She must attend....' unless i haven't got the gist of the letter. Not that it makes a great deal of difference though; it's still perfectly understandable, though could have been worded better IMO. :)
 
I can understand but can see why it could seem a little confusing. The suggestion I would make is to state all dates in a complete DD MMMM YYYY format, so there is definately no confusion, it may also have helped to set them up as a vertical list, although this would probably push them over a page and risk confusing too.

Your daughter has now come to the end of her Young Apprenticeship and is now on her 4th/elective placement.
Your daughters placements are as follows:

Hanley Day Centre
9 January 2009
16 January 2009
23 January 2009
30 January 2009
6 February 2009
13 February 2009
6 March 2009
13 March 2009
20 March 2009
Click to expand...
 
[TW]Fox;13245649 said:
It's understandable but it's not the best written letter I've ever seen. Infact it's a bit of a mess and the way it's been done is amateurish at best but not to the extent that its unreadable.
Click to expand...

The proper letter is tabled and those aren't the exact words I've used but I just wanted to post something quick to get my rant over.
 
I'd have put each month on a new line.. but meh.. you'd have to be a few blades of grass short of a lawn not to get it..
 
Mirage said:
I can understand but can see why it could seem a little confusing. The suggestion I would make is to state all dates in a complete DD MMMM YYYY format, so there is definately no confusion, it may also have helped to set them up as a vertical list, although this would probably push them over a page and risk confusing too.
Click to expand...

I like that and I could go across the page with Placement, College and HCSA.
 
Much better, but could be improved by aligning the other dates with the bottom ones maybe? That way they are in a sort of order.
 
Either way you must be retarded if you can't understand that.
I think those parents also fall under those users that forget passwords all the time or when they go on holiday.

Ditzy idiots.
 
It's easy enough to understand but it's all over the place.

If you're going to give anyone information which includes an obvious progression like dates or time, it's worth putting them in order and matching everything else up to those. MUCH easier to read. Just like a timetable.
Code: 
8th Jan  	College
9th Jan  	Placement
15th Jan	College
16th Jan	Placement
22nd Jan	College
23rd Jan	Placement
29th Jan	College
30th Jan	Placement
5th Feb  	College
6th Feb  	Placement
12th Feb	College
13th Feb	Placement
19th Feb	College
20th Feb	HCSA City General
26th Feb	College
27th Feb	HCSA City General
5th Mar  	College
6th Mar  	Placement
12th Mar	College
13th Mar	Placement
19th Mar	College
20th Mar	Placement
26th Mar	College
2nd Apr  	College
3rd Apr  	HCSA City General
9th Apr  	College
 
easier yes, however that doesn't actually make it hard to read the first way, just not as easy.

the letter itself is very very clear, the only thing would be using it as an actual timetable(which it isn't remember, its just a letter) would be fairly irritating, as you would be reading back and forth but you get semi unclear information in letters all the time. You could have left it like that and included a timetable sheet they can take around with them, or they could have taken the drastic step of making their own timetable or writing the dates into some kind of organiser. The inability to understand a simple letter like that is pretty unbelievable.
 
Pilky01 said:
I can understand it. Not my people are on the same level interllectually as me though.
Click to expand...

Are there no grammar nazi's on OcUK...seriously?

The letter's not hard to understand but I, I'm not sure why, find a consistent need to double check EVERYTHING, just because it's easier than looking retarded if you screw something up :/
 
The letter is to the point and easily followed - it provides the dates and locations, nothing more. In this way, it's "functional" but not laid out in the retardedly easy manner that people have come to expect these days.

If I received a letter like that and felt a bit confused, I'd mark my calendar with the locations for each day, or make my own timetable. The general public nowadays expect this all done for them.
 
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