RE: POLL: A question of rhetoric (not a rhetorical question)

[KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

Cadorette Johanne [mailto:johanne -dot- cadorette -at- locusdialog -dot- com] said 
something that sounded vaguely like:

> Personally, I avoid words like "don't" and "can't" because they sound
> kind of alarmist, or like a slap on the wrist. In fact, I just now
> replaced a bunch of "don't forget to activate your changes" 
> to "remember
> to activate your changes." There is no loss of integrity, and 
> a positive
> sentiment is communicated rather than a negative one. 

I think I have to disagree with the trend I'm hearing 
-- i.e., to let the marketing wonks dictate the use of 
exclusively up-beat, non-threatening language.

Because of the nature of the product and the nature of 
the systems and situations in which it is used, there 
are times when I really do need/want to use words like 
"DO NOT"... and wish I could make them flash in colors.

The guy advising us on Common Criteria compliance and 
on making nice with German customers and government says:
"These people insist that when there's something they 
must not do, or something that they'll regret doing, they 
be informed in no uncertain terms *before* they might 
do it, in installing or using a product. They don't want 
implications and inferrences. They want it clearly stated 
at the appropriate place in the procedure. No weasel words."

I've got even our marketing folks trained to believe 
that an intelligent user is not happy with watered-down 
phrasing when a misunderstanding can cost them money. 
They KNOW there are times when it's not appropriate to 
use a hammer, and they are happy to see that clearly 
stated in the docs.

If it's procedures for defusing bombs, or procedures for 
creating/storing/BACKING-UP! the root keys for your 
hundred-million-dollar PKI roll-out, you really do want 
to know the bad things that could ... er... bring about 
unfavorable outcomes.  

Even words like "avoid" are sometimes not sufficiently 
strong for the situation. There are times when you want 
your "DO NOT" highlighted with borders and backgrounds 
and centered in the middle of the page in a large font.

The person calling the Help Desk just doesn't want to 
hear that what he did was an unrecoverable no-no, duly 
documented in the mildest language on page xxx of 
Appendix C.  The folks TAKING those calls don't want 
to be in the positionn of telling anybody that that's 
the situation they are in.


Kevin (been there) McLauchlan

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