Re: pronouns and portfolios

[Chris <cud -at- telecable -dot- es>]

I strongly disagree with Janice (hi Janice) on the following:
*********
Well, this is the crux of the disagreement, isn't it?
Many people here feel that grammar is style and there
is no right or wrong; others like myself feel that it
provides rules so distinctions can be made between
correct and incorrect usage.
***************

The point is not to make distinctions between correct/incorrect usage. 
The point is that correct usage exists to enhance readability.  The 
grammar we all know (we do, right?) and love (hem, hem) is set up to 
present the reader with patterns they can (roughly speaking) 
instinctively use to prepare themselves for the ensuing phrases and 
ideas.  Mess with it, and you usually increase the cognative load for 
the reader.  Whether they likes it or doesn't, they are the one who has 
to deal with it.

Especially in technical writing, where the cognative load can be 
particularly heavy, it's the writer's job to ease that load whenever 
possible.  Among the tricks in her kit, she can try to make sure each 
phrase is as correct as possible.  Correct generally equates to 
unobtrusive.  (Yes, I could have stated the above in a gender-free 
manner.)  This includes other pet peeves such as resisting the urge to 
verb a nound.  One does not party, leverage, transition, etc.

And lest ye claim that grammar is about style, and hence subjective, 
imagine technical writing in the language my daughter used 5 years 
ago...  "If you do a SetInput in your sh*t after like some bogus 
SetInput you did like a while ago, your system will be all Oh My God." 
Nice style, but not very informative.  The grammatical errors are like 
whoaaa!

One can *do* a noun, but here the noun is so indirect it seems hard to 
sustain so general a verb

*like* is meaningless

*bogus* is a stylistic error but lacks information

It seems you don't like that bogus SetInput any more

One or one's system cannot *be* all Oh My Anything, not to mention that 
such a description of state is a bit abbreviated.

The point is, for the kind of writing we do (Ah-ha! I just *did* a 
noun!), some objectivity does indeed exist, and it should.  And further, 
the more objectivity the better.  (I would argue against the philosophy 
du-jour and claim that it is objectivity that exists, and that 
subjectivity is an illusion after all, but that's another thread.)

Be glad you don't write in Spanish.  Every noun has a gender, and every 
modifier must match that gender...  Mass nouns default to masculine.  So 
if you have all daughters, they are hijas, all sons and they are hijos, 
sons and daughters are also hijos.  It seems the politically correct 
response is the @ character.  Sons and daughters are hij -at- s -dot-   A 
typographical nightmare as far as readability is concerned, and as 
difficult to pronounce as the true name of God.

I personally think the gender issue for he/she is a load of crud.  Hey, 
alternate he and she, or just use he or just use she for crying out 
loud.  We have centuries of usage that suddenly must be ignored just to 
satisfy politics?  I'm not ready to bow that low - call me a chauvinist, 
but I think actions speak louder than words.  Nonetheless, I do avoid 
gender in my technical writing whenever I can (generally always) because 
I know it offends some people - I want to be well liked, just like poor 
old Nixon or what's-his-name from Death of a Salesman.

Cheers        cud
--
Chris Despopoulos, maker of CudSpan Freeware...
Plugins to Enhance FrameMaker & FrameMaker+SGML
My URL and address have both changed - please use:
http://www.telecable.es/personales/cud/
cud -at- telecable -dot- es


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