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Subject:Re: What's important From:"Tamminga, Ernie" <et -at- DSC -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 23 Jun 1997 12:46:37 -0700
One tip: The kind of writing engineers are often taught -- which they
sometimes refer to as "objective" writing -- very often is done in
passive voice. (as was that last sentence...)
This is swell for describing the proposed functionality of a product
("when the green button is pushed, the system responds by..."), but it's
no good for telling a customer (especially an end-user customer) how to
administer or use the product.
Customer-oriented writing should all be in active voice. In many cases,
it should also be in second person ("when you press the green
button...").
One of the things we test, in the "literacy test" we ask all tech-writer
applicants to take, is the applicant's ability to take a passive-voice
sentence and recast it into active voice. That helps in screening-out
the purely technical folks who assume that tech-writing is something
that "anybody can do", and who haven't invested any time in
understanding how language COMMUNICATES, or fails to.
--------
Ernie Tamminga
Director, InfoEngineering
Digital Sound Corporation
-----------------------------------------------
Opinions expressed are my own, and not necessarily those of Digital
Sound Corporation
>-----Original Message-----
>From: David Tillyer, CUNY [SMTP:DATCC -at- CUNYVM -dot- CUNY -dot- EDU]
>Sent: Monday, June 23, 1997 11:37 AM
>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject: What's important
>
>I've been thinking about my students at City College here in New York.
>They're all either engineers or computer science majors. They are not
>headed for technical writing careers, but they are taking a technical
>writing course.
>
>What would you say was the most important thing for technical people
>to know about writing clearly and accurately? Do you have any tips
>that you give your technical, non-writer, colleagues?
>Peace, David Tillyer
>City College of New York
>English Department
>datcc -at- cunyvm -dot- cuny -dot- edu
>
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