Informal style: a clarification

["Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Earlier in this thread, I wrote <<The "Dummy" books sells many
thousands of copies for a good reason: they write in the language
that their specific audience is familiar with and enjoys reading. My
advice is to define your audience and determine what _their_ needs
and expectations are.>>

Based on a message I just received, it belatedly occurs to me that
the juxtaposition of the first two sentences might be taken as an
implication that people who read "Dummy" books _are_ dummies.
That's not my intention at all. In fact, my informal observations of
adult learners suggest that the reason those books work so well is
quite simple: it's not because people think they're stupid, but
rather because they see the title and figure "if a dummy can
understand it, I sure can".

This leads me to speculate a bit further afield: The main differences
I've observed between the archetypical children who "instinctively"
learn complex computer applications that leave their parents baffled
are: (i) the kids aren't worried about breaking anything, and (ii)
the kids don't "know" they can fail, and if they do know they can
fail, they don't care... they'll just try again until they do it
right.

I've often wondered if half the problem with our documentation is
that the audience starts with the assumption that it's going to be
complex and bad, and ends up defeated before they even start. A
teacher once told me that he always started his tests with an easy
question so that students would start off confidently rather than
slamming into a brick wall right at the start and being unable to
handle the rest of the material because of that collision, not
because they're incapable of handling the material. In short, first
impressions _are_ crucial. The implications of this for technical
communication would certainly seem worth pondering!
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Patience comes to those who wait."--Anon.


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