RE: you or he/it

[<Brian -dot- Henderson -at- mitchell1 -dot- com>]

There's one thing I'd like to add to this discussion that hasn't been addressed directly, and that is that the TYPE of documentation plays a big part in language usage. The company I work for produces automotive repair information. Hardcore tech writing for hardcore technicians, who get very annoyed by superfluous "chit-chat". In fact, they often claim to only read the tables and refer to the illustrations. For that audience, you really want to cut to the chase. I would re-write Sean's example as:

Use color picker (J-440p) to set background color for pages.

I have to add though, the Asian OEM manuals are a good example of what has been covered already. While their automotive tech writing is fairly concise, they tend to be -- by western standards -- somewhat "conversational".

Brian Henderson
Data Composition
Mitchell Repair Information Co.
San Diego, CA
www.mitchell1.com


-----Original Message----- From: Sean Hower

For example:

You can use the color picker to set the background of your pages.

can be rewritten as

Use the color picker to set the background color for pages.

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