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Subject:RE: being too picky? From:"Amy Probst" <amy -at- amyprobst -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 23 Jun 2000 12:57:39 -0500
I'm brand new as a technical writer, but I've been a human being for a while now. IMHO, screw your penchant for grammatical gradation, and write simply in the fashion most understandable to your reader.
I think we have to be careful not to let our passion for the written word bleed into our work, if you can follow the sense in that. In other words, the most correct, advanced, or artistic answer isn't always the "best" answer if you're writing to an audience who will only be confused by it. Yes, it rubs the wrong way to use a less correct arrangement of words at times, but reader comprehension is the goal.
Which, by the way, I find almost as satisfying -- in a different way, of course -- as writing some creative work I fancy to be brilliantly constructed. It's all the same thing, really; communication. The words are merely vehicles for ideas, so don't use a train to send an idea to some guy on an island, even if the train "is" faster and more intelligent than a rickety old rowboat.
Live from the peanut gallery,
Amy :)
me -at- amyprobst -dot- com
"It's so hard to work in groups when you're omnipotent."
-Q from Star Trek: TNG
