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Subject:Re: Using the Term "User" From:Pat Anderson <panderson -at- ALIAS -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 3 Dec 1993 13:05:45 -0500
Reply to: RE>Using the Term "User"
Karl Smart asks about using the word "user" in user guides.
We've done our damnedest to get away from using it. The solution we adopted
works for most things, and gives our writing a tone we're working on -- "you",
either used explicitly or implicitly. Face it, the people who are reading the
manuals are the ones who are working with the computer -- is there a need to
refer to the reader in the third person? I'd rather read something that talks
to me than something that refers to me in the third person -- it distances the
information somehow.
Occasionally, second person doesn't work; in these cases, we try to be specific
-- "the designer" or "the animator."
For groups, why not call them [product name] groups?
...pat. anderson
technical writer
alias research inc.
panders -at- alias -dot- com
