RE: Shazam! You're a marketing writer!

["Jessica Weissman" <Jessica -dot- Weissman -at- hillcrestlabs -dot- com>]

Al Geist asked why I think not using three particular terms is the key to good marking writing.

It's mostly a set of pet peeves.  All three words are clichés, and "paradigm" is almost always misused.

If every integration or process is "seamless", the word loses all of its impact.  And it doesn't make sense - seams are a good thing.  You wouldn't want your clothes falling apart, and you wouldn't want to use only bias tape or other non-seamed methods to hold them together.  You might not want highly visible seams like the ones in most jeans, but there are other kinds of seams.  

"Leverage" is almost always used as a fancy synonym for "use" or "take advantage of".  If it were used in its core meaning of amplifying something small into a large effect, I would hate it less.

"Paradigm", at its core, means "stick".  Its proper meaning is a pattern for conjugating a verb or declining a noun.  It's been so stretched to cover all other kinds of patterns that it has lost its meaning.  It's a cliché now and an indicator, most of the time (not when Al uses it of course) of inexact language use and maybe even inexact thinking.

I can't be the only person turned off by copy that includes these terms (or other similar ones).  But I was, mostly, joking.

-  Jessica 

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

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat