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Subject:Re: In the manner of From:"L." <beantown_tw -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 16 Aug 2004 07:04:52 -0700 (PDT)
I think this message entirely misses the fact that our
purpose as tech writers is *NOT* to emulate the style
of the New Yorker and/or Ezra Pound. Each of these in
its own way strives to exclude the "great unwashed"
from its readership through the use of so-called
"high" language.
While no one is trying to say that we as professionals
need to start writing in slang or anything like that,
for many of us, the entire focus of our work is to
bring information "down" (although I hate to use that
word) to a level that is appropriate to our audience.
I have yet to find an instance where rhetorical
trickery such as that found in the New Yorker or
Modernist poetry has had ANY relevance to my work.
Unless something has drastically changed in our field
and no one decided to tell me, it doesn't sound like
these should be considered as a basis for decisions
regarding rhetorical style in tech writing...
My 2 cents for the morning...
____________
KG Kumar wrote:
Not often perhaps, but does happen, as in this example
from The New Yorker's
Talk of the Town column:
"Lee spends the majority of her workday in the manner
of any agent-to-be:
reading manuscripts from the slush pile..."
And Ezra Pound has written a poem titled "Song in the
Manner of Housman".
I'm sure there are countless other examples.
Regards,
kg
-----
KG Kumar
kg - at - tug - dot - org - dot - in
kgkumar - at - gmail - dot - com
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