Relevancy of grammar? Techwr-l tie-in!

Subject: Relevancy of grammar? Techwr-l tie-in!
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 10:27:29 -0400

Various folks have raised the issue of whether grammatical discussions are
relevant on techwr-l. For example, Erin Henderson observes: <<I don't see
how asking grammar questions is any less relevant than things like Tech
Writer
Certification discussions and conversations about where to have dinner at
the STC Conference. This is a tech writer's forum, and I feel like I should
be able to ask grammar questions when my reference books fail to give me a
straightforward answer.>>

It's not that grammar is irrelevant to our discussions; after all, grammar
describes the "best practices" rules that have evolved for the English
language and that tell us how to communicate. The problem is that other
discussion groups (e.g., copyediting-l; signup available online at
http://listserv.indiana.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=copyediting-l&A=1%20)
handle this need better, and using those lists as a resource avoids annoying
those on this list (the majority) who don't want to have to filter out
discussions of grammatical minutae.

Eric has never told us not to ask a question related to technical
communication where grammar plays a role in finding the solution; indeed,
it's hard to imagine a rewording question that doesn't involve grammar.
Rather, he's only asked us not to discuss grammar itself on this list. As
it's his list, I don't consider this unreasonable. So I guess the bottom
line is pretty simple: if you have a question about improving the wording in
a sentence, ask that question. If you want to know the grammatical
explanation, take your question to copyediting-l or elsewhere.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that
English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words;
on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them
unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."-- James D. Nicoll

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by Information Mapping, Inc., a professional services firm
specializing in Knowledge Management and e-content solutions. See
http://www.infomap.com or 800-463-6627 for more about our solutions.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


Previous by Author: On vs. in?
Next by Author: Designing packaging matter??
Previous by Thread: Re: Designing packaging matter??
Next by Thread: RE: Relevancy of grammar? Techwr-l tie-in!


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads