TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: a question about verb tense/is or was? From:"Steve Hudson" <steve -at- wright -dot- com -dot- au> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 22 Mar 2001 10:16:39 +1100
I come from an ISO background, so ESPECIALLY in internal manuals, it is
always more correct to use the future tense.
Now, being a pedant with a software manual, the user cant read and click at
the same time, so technically speaking the wording should reflect the
immediate future - IMHO.
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-62124 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-62124 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Dick
Margulis
Sent: Thursday, 22 March 2001 02:09
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: a question about verb tense/is or was?
Harry,
Let's hope that is not what Steve meant. The trap, as I think most people on
this list would agree, is that we tend to write about software that has not
been released. So a developer, acting as subject matter expert, tells us
what WILL happen when the user clicks a button at some indefinite time in
the future, once the feature is available.
But when the documentation ships, the software IS available. So we tell the
user that clicking a button does something in the present tense. If we
suggest that something will take place as a result of an action, we raise a
momentary doubt in the reader's mind: When will it take place? Right away?
Tonight after I leave work? On Judgment Day? This is not necessarily a
conscious thought, but it can introduce some incertainty and lack of
confidence in the reader; and so we avoid it.
That is not to say that the future tense is never appropriate. It is
perfectly reasonable to suggest that pressing Enter sets a flag [now] that
the system WILL react to during the nightly batch processing. Note the
explicit qualification that answers the question When.
Dick
"Hager, Harry (US - East Brunswick)" wrote:
>Steve,
>
>Are you saying that you normally use the future tense when you write
>procedures for user manuals and other such tech writing?
>
>Please take a look at the following be examples:
>
>- When you click the ABC button, the ABC window will open.
>
>- When you click the XYZ button, the program will start the XYZ procedure.
>
>- You will select the XXX command in the ABC window when you want to
perform
>the XXX procedure.
>
>Are these fair, although perhaps simplistic, representations of what you
>mean when you say you use the future tense whenever possible?
>
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/
---
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.
