Re: Grammar - The Gotcha Microsoft Gives

[kafkascampi <kafkascampi -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I write help topics and manuals for SaaS software. If you use the software,
you are a user. I'd love to call everyone who reads it by their first name,
though.

DAVE, click Release to Production. DAVE, why aren't you clicking Release to
Production? Is it me, DAVE? Is it because I called you a user that one time?

But really, I write my topics in 2nd person, so I only call people users
when describing functionality, etc.

:)

Chris (USER 27b/6)

On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 9:08 AM, Combs, Richard <richard -dot- combs -at- polycom -dot- com>wrote:

> mattgras -at- comcast -dot- net wrote:
>
> > You miss my drift.
>
> No, I don't. I'm all too familiar with your drift; I just reject it.
>
> > I am a person.
>
> Is that all? And only that? You're never a writer, reader, a driver, a
> buyer, ... ? In your documents, when you have to refer to someone other than
> the reader, do you always and exclusively refer to them as "a person" with
> no other identifying information?
>
> > I am not a "user," a "customer," or a "consumer."
>
> You are when you use, buy, or consume something.
>
> > All those terms present me in relation to products or services, and
> > regard me as a cog in a corporate machine.
>
> They present you in relation to the things you use, buy, and consume. Or
> are you living in an ethereal world where you don't actually interact with
> _things_?
>
> They present you as an _actor_, suggesting volition and control, and thus
> as the _opposite_ of a cog.
>
> > This is, I think, a major problem in our world and one of the reasons
> > why profits are more highly regarded than people.
>
> Oh, puh-leez.
>
>
> Richard G. Combs
> Senior Technical Writer
> Polycom, Inc.
> richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
> 303-223-5111
> ------
> rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
> 303-903-6372
> ------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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