Re: for general discussion

[Michael West <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au>]

>  . . . .  Isn't 
> the personal pronoun up there with procedural writing and active voice 
> in the tech writing canon?  

No. The "you" pronoun is in the procedural writing "canon". It is
of little use in technical writing except in procedural material. Direct
address is generally recommended for telling someone how to do 
something. It avoids all sorts of silly linguistic contortions ("to do this,
the user should enter his or her pasword" etc) that only create 
distance between the instructor and the one being instructed.


> 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."

The other personal pronouns (I, we, they, etc.) are scracely
mentioned at all in "the tech writing canon" as far as I know.

--
Mike West
Melbourne

"An active-voice transitive verb always beats 
a copula-and-adjective-complement combo."
-- Prof. James Bloom via William Safire 


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

ANNOUNCING ROBOHELP STUDIO
Create professional Help systems that feature interactive tutorials and
demos with all new RoboHelp Studio. More at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2

Mercer University's online MS Program in Technical Communication Management:
Preparing leaders of tomorrow's technical communication organizations today.
See www.mercer.edu/mstco or write George Hayhoe at hayhoe_g -at- mercer -dot- edu -dot- 

---
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.