Re: Politeness

[Jim Walsh <jimw -at- TENNESSEE -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM>]

*  Comments: cc: Technical Writers List <TECHWR-L -at- VM1 -dot- ucc -dot- okstate -dot- edu>
*  To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L <TECHWR-L -at- OSUVM1 -dot- BITNET>

*  This is all very interesting.  At a previous job, I finally convinced
*  the programmers to use less threatening language when referring
*  to errors (fatal, abort, illegal, etc.)  I remember attending a
*  workshop at the STC conference in New York (I think) on writing
*  error messages.  One thing that was stressed was making error
*  messages less scary.

*  I know that 'Abort' is pretty scary to me (especially when there
*  is usually no help available when you get that message).

*  We changed our error messages to say 'terminated' instead of
*  'abort' and just removed the usage of 'fatal' altogether.

*  For example, 'fatal error' became 'system error' (or whatever it
*  was).  We also added some help into the error message telling the
*  user what might have caused the problem and how to fix it (reinput,
*  call customer support, etc.)

*  It wasn't really a matter of politeness, rather of just removing
*  a stress level for the customer when using the product.

*  Caryn Rizell
*  Tech Writing Contractor
*  caryn -at- hpptc44 -dot- rose -dot- hp -dot- com


Hi: One thing more important than any message that pops up (Abort, System
Error, Fatal Error) is the explanation of the message. The screen message is
usually brief; thus, somewhere there has to be a more detailed explanation with
possible options for correction. If this latter is provided, then I don't
really care what you had called it -- I'm only interested at that juncture on
how to get started again. And the faster the better.

But, if there isn't a good explanation of what (possibly) occurred and what
to do, then you've got a very unhappy camper (no matter how PC your message
was).

Regards -- Jim Walsh      jimw -at- tennessee -dot- sc -dot- ti -dot- com