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

["Dan Hall" <dhall -at- san-carlos -dot- rms -dot- slb -dot- com>]

I thought I'd chime in on this, as I too am wary of
the "be positive" POV.

I think it depends more on what you're documenting, and
the consequences of doing the wrong thing. It's fine to
say "You can enter a keyword in the blahblah box" instead 
of "Don't enter more than one keyword..." when there's 
really no great danger of data loss or injury.

You might be more "negative" when it comes to, say, data 
security. "Do not give out your password under any 
circumstances" is stronger than "Keep your password 
secret" (IMO)

Here at SchlumbergerSema, one of our products is a radio-
frequency controlled RTU - a big distribution switch that
turns on or off high power (kV) lines - those big lines
you see running across the desert on 200' towers.

If someone makes a mistake while using the software that
controls these things, you could turn the power out for
a significant portion of a large metropolitan area. You
could also kill someone - if the switch closes while 
they're working on the "off" side.

In a case like that, we have large, red, all-caps cautions
that say "Do not attempt to switch the RTU without 
clearance from the utility... Severe injury or death
could result. And in the text, I also say "Do not..."

Frankly, I'm with Kevin - I can't wait for e-paper so
these warnings can really flash.

Dan

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. 
That is the only secret of style.  -- Matthew Arnold  

 




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