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Oh, Andrew, if I weren't already happily married, I would propose!
You said:
| Like every person who ever lived I do dumb things and I miss details. I'm
a
| moron! Fortunately for me, there are other morons who can catch my moronic
| acts. We morons have to stick together you know.
|
| Furthermore, as a writer it is our job to explain to morons how things
work.
| Honestly, seeing your audience as morons is very helpful because it forces
you
| to dumb down your text.
Oh, am I a moron. Tax stuff? - moron. Fine investment details? Moron.
Cooking? Moron. Bookkeeping? Moron. Auto mechanics? Moron. Missing
grammatical details during the end of the project? Moron. Screwed up
instructions in first (and sometimes second) draft? Moron. Do poorly in a
new visually rich environment? Moron.
What the heck is usability test about except to see what the morons do with
our great stuff? Is it a good idea to dismiss our readers as unimportant
because they are morons? No, bad idea. Think of them as morons who need to
be protected from themselves? Oh, probably a good idea.
And Andrew, you used the wrong from off to in your last sentence. You needed
to make it too, as in as well. ;-)
sharon
Sharon Burton-Hardin
President of the Inland Empire chapter of the STC
www.iestc.org
Anthrobytes Consulting
909-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, 06 April, 2000 9:38 PM
Subject: Of Mice and Morons
| > This is NOT a personal attack on the author of this remark, but I hope
it is
| > a clear attack on the idea that it is somehow acceptable to think of
ones
| > audience as morons because the writer knows something the audience does
not.
| > Is that not why we have a job?
|
| Yes it is a personal attack, just thinly disguised inside a semantic
argument.
|
| You've attacked me on three separate occasions about my use of the word
moron.
| Honestly, I think you have no point other than to pick a semantic argument
with
| me - which really isn't any better than telling me my grammur er me
spellin' ez
| wong.
|
