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Subject:Re: "The user can" vs. "you can" From:Michele Marques <mmarques -at- CMS400 -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 22 Jan 1999 09:25:50 -0500
Geoff Hart and Marianne Bowen discussed annoyances with switching between
"The user can" and "you can". Geoff Hart mentioned that one of his problems
(besides consistency) was that switching to "the user can" makes the reader
think the task is not his responsibility.
I write documentation for an ERP system. I.e., there are many people using
various parts of the system, and most people don't have access to everything
(let alone responsibility). I always say "you can", or otherwise speak in second
person when I anticipate the person reading that part of the documentation will
be doing the task I describe. But when I mention prerequisites for the task,
some of the responsibilities will be for the person doing the task, and some
responsibilities are for other people (e.g., many departments need accounting
codes entered only by the accounting or Finance department).
When I am mentioning prerequisites, depending on responsibility, I will either
say something like "you must enter the XYZ code in procedure123 before
starting procedure456", or I will say something like "The XYZ code must
already be in the system (procedure123) before you can start procedure456".
When I anticipate that the reader may not be the responsible individual, I
usually do not specify who is responsible, as different companies have different
policies and names for the departments. Also, my example of it being
Finance/Accounting was simplistic.... in many cases it is really different people
within a department (e.g. the supervisor), but in a small company it might be
the individual reading the instructions, or the IS person, or someone else who is
seen as responsible enough to enter critical set-up codes.
