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Subject:Re: How formal or informal From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 09 Mar 2001 10:00:34 -0800
Cindy Parker-Mart wrote:
> This poses a more broad question to me. Most of the documentation I produce
> is web-based. I have taken the informal approach on everything except the
> actual procedure and sometimes not even in that case. I find that a more
> 'conversational' tone works extremely well for my customers. I am wondering
> if that is incorrect. I reserve the formal writing for proposals, letters
> to customers and in certain places in our user manuals. Is this correct or
> am I getting lazy? I think Jo is on target. Whatever works to convey the
> message to the user is most certainly appropriate in my opinion. I don't
> get excited about the hard and fast rules anymore. My goal is to
> communicate and that's it.
>
I suspect that setting up the issue as an either-or question is
misleading. You can, for example, write in formal English with a
simple vocabulary and sentence structure or in informal English with
convoluted and obscure constructions. Personally I'm far more
concerned with clarity of expression than with formal or informal
English.
--
Bruce Byfield 317.833.0313 bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com
Director of Marketing and Communications,
Progeny Linux Systems
"The Queen was in her chamber, a-weeping very sore,
There came Lord Leicester's spirit and It scratched upon the door,
Singing, "Backward and forward and sideways may you pass,
But I will walk beside you till you face the looking glass."
- Rudyard Kipling, "The Looking Glass"
IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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