Re: for general discussion
Next, they'll be saying that "female" writing is better than "male" writing,
or vice-versa...and, inevitably, every company must hire two writers, a male
and a female, to optimize communication with the target audience. After that
will be a debate over female coders vs male coders, and which gender is best
for programs...Inevitably, there will have to be a mating, and won't *that*
merge be interesting.
The more interesting aspects aside, according to the most cursory glance I gave the article, it appears that determination has been made. Isn't the personal pronoun up there with procedural writing and active voice in the tech writing canon? I quote the article: "For example, Koppel's group found that the single biggest difference is that women are far more likely than men to use personal pronouns-''I'', ''you'', ''she'', ''myself'', or ''yourself'' and the like."
Dare I ask about the male/female ratio in STC? Please, no flames - at the stake or otherwise... Posing a question does not necessarily reveal the opinions of the poser.
I have actually had clients tell me to pull all those personal pronouns out of my work because it was either too demanding ("You" don't have to do x, the design must incorporate x) or somehow struck the client as "unprofessional" or some such.
--
Chris Despopoulos, maker of CudSpan Freeware...
Plugins to Enhance FrameMaker & FrameMaker+SGML
http://www.telecable.es/personales/cud/
cud -at- telecable -dot- es
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