RE: Can software have human attributes? meets: You Don't Need to Know How AND Why You NEED to be technical - BUT WHEN YOU'RE NOT!

["Karen E. Black" <kblack_text -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Has no one pointed out in this thread the level of semi-formality that 
business/technical writing usually calls for?

I once re-wrote a user manual on maintaining tables and parameters for a 
mainframe system. One chapter was titled "How Does XXX System Spell Relief? 
P-U-R-G-E." The project managers and SMEs liked it that way, but I persuaded 
them to change it.

Another chapter gave a work-around procedure on switching equipment from one 
cable outlet to another (called a box shuffle). Of course, the first 
paragraph was the first verse of the Hokey-Pokey (you put your left foot in, 
you take your left foot out...). SNIP.

Sits and waits...asks for your input...goes to sleep? We can think of better 
terms than those, and stick our tongues in our cheeks as far as we want when 
writing up minutes of interminable meetings or an invitation to lunch.

Karen E. Black
Technical Writer, Party Pooper, Don't Make Me Laugh
www.dhltd.com
--------------------------------------------
"Higgledy Piggledy, my white hen;
She lays eggs for gentlemen.
You cannot persuade her with gun or lariat
To come across for the proletariat."
--Dorothy Parker


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