RE: techwriting style vs press release

Subject: RE: techwriting style vs press release
From: "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>
To: "Porrello, Leonard" <lporrello -at- illumina -dot- com>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:56:08 -0700

Porrello, Leonard wrote:

> And once again American anti-intellectualism rears its ugly head. The
> poet is one who has mastered the most difficult aspects of language.
> Going back to Plato, most if not all of the greatest prose writers in
> the western intellectual tradition were also poets.
>
> Why would anyone want to keep students away, for any amount of time,
> from the best examples of great writing that our culture has to offer?
> If everyone who wanted to write were trained by a poet, the airwaves
> and internet wouldn't be so full of nonsense. Technical documents
> wouldn't be so poorly written. The problem with commercial writing
> isn't that writers can't master story telling or economy or who, what,
> where, when, why, and how. It is that they have no poetic sense.

I've encountered quite a bit of bad technical documentation over the years. In no case have I ever thought that the problem was lack of poetic sense, imagery, emotions, or self-expression. :-)

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
------






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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: techwriting style vs press release: From: Bowes, Rebecca
Re: techwriting style vs press release: From: Peter Neilson
RE: techwriting style vs press release: From: Brian.Henderson
RE: techwriting style vs press release: From: Porrello, Leonard

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