Checking assumptions at the door?

Subject: Checking assumptions at the door?
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 09:15:03 -0400

Lin Sims reports: <<Once upon a time, I did think of "he" as being
all-inclusive.>>

Opinions to the contrary notwithstanding, "he" _is_ considered inclusive in
modern discourse because it's become, for better or worse, the default.
That's emphatically _not_ to say that this makes the decision to use "he" a
neutral decision; it has important consequences for one's audience, since a
large proportion of women (perhaps the majority) now consider "he" to
exclude them. (I base this purely on anecdotal evidence from repeated
discussions on techwr-l, copyediting-l, and in other forums.) I don't want
to reignite this debate, but I do want to point out that the simple fact
that something has been broadly accepted does not make it the best or right
choice. As Lin notes:

<<These days I use the singular "they", which has a long history behind it,
or I rewrite to avoid the pronoun--which last is, I suspect, what most of us
do, anyway. :-)>>

I tend to minimize my use of "they" not because it's acceptance is in
question by grammarians, but rather because it doesn't follow modern usage
trends well enough to have broad acceptance; for a large proportion of our
audience (including many editors on copyediting-l), it simply looks odd, and
that's a sign you should use it carefully. I prefer working in the
imperative and/or second person, using plurals ("readers should... so they
can" rather than "the reader should... so he can..."), and a few other
tricks that have been discussed frequently on techwr-l. Check the archives
for details.

<<Luckily, my tech manuals rarely require the use of third-person singular,
and I, having tired of the whole second person vs. third person argument,
generally try to phrase my sentences so that neither "you" nor "the user" is
required anyway.>>

No luck involved; that's a conscious design decision, and generally a good
one.

<<One of the things I dislike about a lot of the manuals I've seen is that
too many of the procedures assume that the user has a particular piece of
knowledge or has already done some other task. In my manuals, I list a set
of assumptions before every single procedure with references to where a
particular piece of information can be found or where a required procedure
can be found.>>

Interesting choice. At first glance, this seems like an eminently sensible
approach, despite the seeming redundancy, and second glance isn't revealing
any obvious problems. I'll be interested to see what others have to say
about this.

<<Sometimes I think that frustration over assumptions is why I got into tech
writing in the first place.>>

Sounds like a reasonable assumption. <gdr>

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html

"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is
by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause
accidents."-- Nathaniel Borenstein

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by Cub Lea, specialist in low-cost outsourced development
and documentation. Overload and time-sensitive jobs at exceptional
rates. Unique free gifts for all visitors to http://www.cublea.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


Follow-Ups:

Previous by Author: What is best way to show submenus in a document?
Next by Author: Checking assumptions at the door? (Take II)
Previous by Thread: RE: Checking Assumptions at the door
Next by Thread: Re: Checking assumptions at the door?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads