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Subject:language and communication From:Damien Braniff <dbraniff -at- iss-dsp -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 27 Nov 2000 09:25:48 +0000
As my original post said this was from a talk a couple of years ago and,
like any good talk, the opening premise is designed to get people
talking (pros and cons) and was probably at least a little tongue in
cheek. Anyway, some thoughts of my own on what's been said so far:
Bruce Byfield said it was more a question of what language does easily
than what it was good or bad at and I have to agree. However, can't you
equate the two, at least at some level? Isn't it (v. generally!) the
case that what we good at comes easily? He also talks about the level
of organisation and again I agree but what level do most people operate
at? At school I was taught that electrons orbit the nucleus of an atom
like the earth around the moon - made sense; later I was told it wasn't
quite like that; at university things change again... Language is like
that. Most people have a basic understanding of language to a level
that meets their everyday needs. Once you go beyond that level you
start having problems (is this where we come in?).
His example re directions is valid to a point but almost everyone I know
wouldn't give directions like that - more likely to be 'second left by
the Red Lion pub, then third right by the supermarket...'. We
automatically add visual clues to supplement the basic instructions.
As to wincing at being called a communicator, it's as good a word as
any. Personally I don't care what they call me as long as they keep
paying me :)
Dan Emory said that 'catering to the post-literate world only guarantees
it will arrive'. Unfortunately, I fell that it may already be here!
Education is changing (not always for the better I feel); there's more
to learn and sometimes what I'd call the basics suffer but, hopefully,
it's only a pendulum effect and it'll swing back again.There was a
survey carried out by one of the newspapers here recently and a series
of articles (Dumb and Dumber) which basically compared what young people
knew vs those a bit older with some startling differences highlighted.
Very simplistically, the younger generation were very up on modern
culture (pop, celebrities etc) but were relatively ignorant of 'classic'
literature, history (even relatively modern history) etc with the
implication that it was irrelevant to them. We do live in the
'soundbite age' where the snippet seems to be more important than the
issues behind them. I've read of several cases (in the last couple of
years) where films were either not made because it was thought they were
too 'arty/intellectual' for the audience or they were severely edited
because 'nobody was going to watch a 3 hr long film'.
Geoff Hart gave several examples:
Science journals for complex information: I agree but we're down to
what Bruce was saying about levels. Science journals come in two
general flavours - one aimed at the populace at large and these are, I
would argue, fine examples of the TW art making science accessible to
the masses. The other type, is specifically aimed at readers of a
similar knowledge/experience etc as the writer. They DO explain complex
information but you often need something 'extra' to fully understand
them - knowledge of maths/physics etc.
Spatial information: Simple example but the more complex the
information the more we need to provide - 3rd door on the left, green
door, number 7 etc. And if you get into complex spatial informtion like
electrons orbiting a nucleus.... :)
With logic and analysis we're again talking levels. Currently the work
I'm doing involves fast Fourier transforms which I doubt anyone but an
engineer in the same field could make total sense out of.
As for emotions feelings.... I think the point being made was that what
you say isn't necessarily what you mean and often supporting evidence is
needed. If someone says 'I love you', the chances are you DON'T take it
at face value but subconsciously link it to how they treat you etc.
Almost nothing stands alone. If you read a good book you're inclined to
look favourably on one by the same author. On this list, there are
posters whose posts you read because of who's posting, not the thread,
because they're usually, informative/funny/whatever. If you read a
technical manual/book and find that the instructions in a section are
wrong then you immediately treat the rest with caution.
Language is still the primary tool for most of us but we must realise
that it's only one of the tools available. And as to which tool we
use... as is often the case in TW, it depends :)
As an aside, the speaker gave a talk at this year's conference as well
and again she had something to catch the audience with. Started off by
saying she'd show we were liars and cheats! Got us to focus on
something (e.g. the lectern/speaker etc) and then to 'scruch up our
eyes'. When asked what happened she got various responses - 'it moved',
'it wobbled' etc. Of course it didn't change at all (we're all liars!),
only our perception changed. Got a couple of volunteers to stand at
the front and then stood at the side with playing card and asked them to
say when they could see the card and what it was. At least one of the
volunteers turned to look - instinct is to 'peep'!
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