Re: Formality is going bye-bye?

Subject: Re: Formality is going bye-bye?
From: John Garison <john -at- garisons -dot- com>
To: "Dubin, David" <David -dot- Dubin -at- sage -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 12:42:31 -0500

Dumbing down is different than writing informally. Dumbing down is removing or obfuscating content/information, and pandering to the absolute lowest common denominator. That is not what Google is doing or what I am advocating.

<soapbox>
Dumbing down is also pandering to the politically correct and easily offended, neither of which am I advocating, and which, David, your school system seems to be practicing. I totally disagree with the approach that panders to self esteem by making everyone a winner and no one a loser.

Go read Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" (collected in "Welcome to the Monkey House"), a story of a young boy blessed with the physical and mental prowess of a god who lives in a society that insists upon extreme equality for all its citizens. Vonnegut presents a scary view of a future society, where everyone is equal. "Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." It's the job of the agents of the United States Handicapper General to keep it this way. Beautiful people have to wear ugly masks. Graceful people had to wear handicap bags full of lead. Clever people had to wear a radio in their ear tuned to the government transmitter, which sent out sharp noises to keep people from taking advantage of their brains.
</soapbox>

I'm all for complete, accurate information, I just feel that the way it's presented should follow more of the 'spoonful of sugar' approach.

My 2¢,

John





Dubin, David wrote:

Here is one man's (very jaded) opinion. (Bringing out soap box)

It seems to me that there is a "dumbing down" of communications at every
level of American society. Collin refers to it as a trend towards
informality, but I see this as a much more insidious threat to our culture.
It goes hand in hand with our children's inability to read and write at
grade levels consistent with the Flesch-Kincaid reading index or understand
math beyond basic arithmetic.
I don't know how the school system in your state/county/district works, but
our school board in Pinellas County, Florida, wants to do away with the
valedictorian and salutatorian because they don't feel it is fair to the
other students. And we wonder why Americans cannot compete in a global
economy. (Putting away soap box)

Sorry, I had to vent.
David B. Dubin, PHR Senior Curriculum Developer Sage Software 727-579-1111 x 3356
david -dot- dubin -at- sage -dot- com
Your business in mind.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+david -dot- dubin=sage -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+david -dot- dubin=sage -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of John Garison
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 12:09 PM
To: Collin T
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Formality is going bye-bye?

Hi Colin,

IMHO, they know their audience, and they're talking clearly and directly to them.

I don't have a real problem with this. But then I advocate using contractions in my documentation, too. Anything that makes the content more readable and less off-putting is a good thing. If formality is a barrier between me and my audience, and if I can get my message across while using less stilted language, I'm all for it.

Ever read the manuals associated with games? They're pretty informal, too. And I believe one of them won an STC Best of Show award a few years ago - complete with torn pages, 'handwritten' crib notes, and so forth ... it made the documentation part of the game.

As long as accuracy and completeness are not compromised - and the Google Q&A format does a good job of presenting complete information - I say go for it. ANYTHING that will encourage (and not discourage) people from reading and learning is acceptable (as long as it doesn't alienate other readers).

Hmmm ... maybe instead of levels of documentation: beginner, advanced, wizard - we need to think about age stratification: teenz, adults, and mature.

My 2¢,


John



Collin T wrote:


<snip>
I was reading Google's explanation regarding their new chat features
in Gmail. It dawned on me that their language is very informal. Now,
I've noticed this before, but never thought too much about it. Recently, however, I've noticed a few instances of Help text seeming
to follow Google's lead.
<snip>
So my question is this: Are "General Public" documents (help, etc)
going to shift with Google's lead?

I'm not talking about technical documents aimed at specific segments. I'm talking about documents that are geared towards general
consumption.


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