TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: do you write or edit man pages? From:Paula Jagt <paulaj -at- platform -dot- com> To:"'Christi'" <christi -at- sageinst -dot- COM>, TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 11 Feb 2000 11:05:35 -0500
Hi Christi,
I write and edit man pages as part of my job now, and I make them all
active voice. All the old ones were in passive voice (written by software
engineers who don't know any better).
I found that rewriting:
- reduces the volume
- reduces the confusion (was that a warning that running this command will
stop the daemon, or an instruction to go stop the daemon yourself?)
- makes the information easier to maintain
_______________
Paula Jagt
Platform Computing Corporation
3760 14th Ave, Markham, Ont, L3R 3T7
paulaj -at- platform -dot- com
