Re: A philosophical tech writing question

[Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Jeez, Ned...

I guess it is possible to take your detachment to that kind of Chinese-monk-meditating-under-a-waterfall level, but really, what's the point? If having "personality" injected into the final work does not harm the value of the work, why bother? 

What would be the virtue of having a document written in such a manner that it is totally impossible to discern any human element in the writing? IF it would make it a better document somehow, IF it would make it easier to understand or better organized, only then would it be worth it to worry so much about making it so impersonal.

Worry about "personality" in a document if and only if "personality" threatens to make the document less useful to the reader. If not, save your effort.

Ned, how many hair shirts do you own?


--- On Wed, 11/19/08, Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> wrote:

> From: Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>
> Subject: Re: A philosophical tech writing question
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 6:34 PM
> Downing, David wrote:
> 
> > Is in truly possible to remove yourself
> > completely from what you write. 
> 
> You mean like cloistered, monkish 'selfless
> devotion' to 
> personality-free information?  You betcha!
> 
> But most of us lose interest around the time we've
> purged our work of 
> 90% of personality. The final 10% is the most costly, in
> personal terms, 
>   while the first 90% is relatively easy--just buy your
> work clothes at 
> a Uniform store, drive a beater (20+ years old), pack your
> lunch and eat 
> at your desk while you work, and you too may find it much
> much easier to 
> think less of yourself. But 90% is the point of diminishing
> returns, 
> where further progress becomes very difficult.
> 
> Getting past 90% selflessness generally requires uncommon
> hardship. A 
> few tips to mhelp you on yuour way: you only work on
> contract, take the 
> bus to work, arrive on time every time, share a small
> cubie, provide 
> your own office supplies, take only two small breaks per
> day (no 
> coffee!) + 1/2 hr unpaid lunch, report to your manager
> often, bow from 
> the waist to any permanent employees you encounter in the
> courzse of the 
> day.
> 
> The final push to absolute zero is like, sleep on a plank,
> eat only 
> bland mush, wear coarse frocks (coarse pocket protectors!),
> work by 
> candlelight, go blind from eyestrain, etc. Very few
> technical writers 
> undertake this level of de-personalization. (We just
> aren't comfortable 
> excluding ourselves 100% from the user experience.)  The
> ones who do 
> might eventually go on to become PM or BA, but as you know,
> those jobs 
> usually go to the ones who are led into engineering by
> their absence of 
> personality in the first place.
> 
> Not sure if I've answered you, let me know if you have
> further questions.
> 
> Ned Bedinger
> doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
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