[3148] in TECHWR-L
Re: More personable tech writing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (fretz)
Wed Nov 10 21:40:28 1993
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 17:56:33 -0500
Reply-To: "Technical Writers List; for all Technical Communication issues" <TECHWR-L%OSUVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: fretz <tscom002@129.25.3.11>
To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L <TECHWR-L%OSUVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
>I absolutely agree that manuals (which can be inherently dull anyway) are much
>more readable if the author is "conversational" in tone and friendly versus
>"invisible" and cold.
Alicia Fretz
Drexel U
Reply-To: Steven Owens <uso01@MAILHOST.UNIDATA.COM>
>
>>Perhaps we can start another thread here; what do you (list members)
>>think of the idea of making a book more "personable", to more
>>effectively engage the reader's imagination?
>
>>Standard practice seems to be for the writer to be invisible,
>>ego-less. For a reference work, perhaps, but what about tutorials,
>>introductory pieces, etc?
>
>>What about using expressions and turns of phrase that are not generic,
>>but rather specific to the writer's, ahem, prose?
>
>One thing that I try to do (and I occasionally get dinged by my editor
>for it) is maintain a conversational tone, especially in tutorial and
>"user manual" type pieces. I'm not sure that it's _my_ personality
>that I'm letting shine through; rather, I try to sound like a peer to
>my user. This includes using _their_ jargon (common usage terms),
>using contractions, and any other devices appropriate to the piece that
>make the end user feel comfortable with _me-the-book_.
>
>In pieces aimed toward a poor-dumb-user (pdu) audience, this includes
>spicing up examples with a fair amount of humor. I keep a list of
>names like Phil O'Dendron and Les Danse -- perfect for populating
>databases with -- and show merge letter examples from park ranger
>Captain S. Tate Parks.
>
>In pieces aimed toward the application developer, executive, or other
>"professional" level user, I maintain a more business like and "crisp"
>style -- a kind-of "let's get down to business" approach.
>
>IMHO, you can engage your readers and stimulate their imagination more
>effectively by spotlighting their (collective) egos -- not by remaining
>ego-less, and not by foisting your own ego upon your readers.
>
>Works for me! (And by the way... Is everyone suitably impressed by my
>PCCP (politically correct contrived plural) prose???) ;^)
>
>Sue Gallagher |
>Sr. Technical Writer | "Updating a manual
>Easel Corporation | is like changing tires
>Enfin Technology Lab | on a moving car."
>San Diego, CA | -- Edmond Weiss
>Susan_Gallagher_at_Enfin-SD@relay.proteon.com |
