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Re: describing the minority as literate is a circular argument?

Subject: Re: describing the minority as literate is a circular argument?
From: Lee Hunter <lee -dot- hunter -at- hum -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 21:10:08 -0400


Bruce Byfield wrote:

[At any rate, to describe the minority as "literate and sophisticated" is a circular argument. In this context, both words mean "well-versed in the standards of the minority."

I think they mean what they always mean. Literate means being familiar with the written word and sophisticated means having a certain level of refinement in thought and/or expression.

A minority is just anything less than a majority.

So, really, what you are saying is
that they know what they know.]

In a sense, that's exactly my point.

Someone with well-developed language skills is probably aware that they have good language skills. In the same way, someone with poor language skills is, no doubt, aware that language is not their strong point.

I would suggest then that the more literate person is much more likely to be put off by poor spelling (in the sense of having a poor opinion of the product quality) than the less literate person would be distracted by a correct, if slightly unfamiliar, spelling. It's a little hard to judge the impact because it means different things to the two groups. For one it's more a quality issue and for the other its a theoretical readability issue.

File system and filesystem is a good example because it's quite readable either way. If your product is for a very narrow target group and you know that they all use "filesystem" there may be a case for using the standard in their world. But if your product is for something like a desktop application that will be used by people from all walks of life - from poets to police officers - I would use "file system" even if a theoretical majority has seen "filesystem" more often. I find it improbable, to say the least, that anyone who uses "filesystem" would have the slightest difficult reading and understanding "file system".

People who appreciate careful usage will know the difference and people for whom usage is not especially important will, by definition, not care.


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Follow-Ups:

References:
describing the minority as literate is a circular argument?: From: diotima
Re: describing the minority as literate is a circular argument?: From: Bruce Byfield

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