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.
Re: pronouns and portfolios--bringing it back tech writing
Subject:Re: pronouns and portfolios--bringing it back tech writing From:Bonnie Granat <bgranat -at- att -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 09 Apr 2001 23:27:36 -0400
Brian Hoskins wrote:
>
> <<I like using "they" even with a singular verb. The only thing stopping me
> is that its usage distracts the grammatically attuned. Occasionally I'll
> use it, but I choose the audience carefully.>>
>
> While I am quite happy to use "they" and it's derivatives, I fail to see the
> need for the singular verb following it.
It's not the singular verb that I think
people here are talking about. It's the
pronoun agreeing in number with its
antecedent.
Here's an example of what my company's
documents contained six months ago:
When the caller dials your extension
and you are on the phone, they will be
sent to your voice mail.
Now our documents say:
When callers dial your extension and
you are on the phone, they will be sent
to your voice mail.
Sometimes the problem sentence is not as
easy to fix as this illustration is, and
I might spend five minutes working on a
construction that is considered standard
written English. Until "they" no longer
means more than one, I shall not allow a
single singular "they" to sneak by me.
Happily, I've converted my colleagues on
this issue and on the issue of not using
"then" as anything but what it is -- an
adverb. Because it is incorrect to
write, "I ate dinner, took a walk,
easily fell asleep at nine o'clock"
(unless you're writing fiction, in which
such a construction is acceptable), it
is also incorrect to write, "Enter a
name and an address, then click OK."
Another happy report I can make is that
I was successful in persuading the doc
dept. at my company (my manager,
principally) to formally adopt the
Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical
Publications as its primary style guide.
I should probably say Andrew Plato's
view of what's okay in the world of
documentation is okay by me, because had
I not walked into such a challenging
situation, I would not be enjoying the
professional satisfaction I am now
enjoying. But I won't.
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available 4/30/01 at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001 Conference East,
June 4-6, Baltimore, MD. Now covering Acrobat 5. Early registration deadline
April 27. http://www.pdfconference.com.
---
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.