A typical J.O.B. scenario

I'm filling out a form proposal that a certain foundation requires for grant applicants. Form proposals are tedious because you have to both write a continuous narrative, and break it into pieces. This one is a mother--16 pages before one word is written.

One section asks for a brief history of the organization. So, I copy, paste and modify some boilerplate from our bag of tricks and move to the next section. Later, my boss reviews it.

"This isn't history," he says, "This is process." He then gives me a two-page sample of what a "history of the organization" should look like. It's almost word-for-word what I wrote. In fact, the source I plagiarized it from was probably based on this very document he forwarded to me.

Okaaaay...

That conversation took place via e-mail. When he came into my office to deliver the hard copy of the edits, I asked him what the substantive difference between my writing and his sample was. He repeated himself: "It's process." Then he said something that floored me.

"[The document he gave me] needs to be updated a little bit. We have new Board members, but otherwise it's good. I wrote that about four years ago."

So, basically, the language that is virtually identical to the piece that I "wrote" was actually written by my boss. Essentially, I have to rewrite what I wrote, using the identical language he provided, but make it sound different.

M'kay.