TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Appropriate -- so inappropriate! From:Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:50:07 +1000
Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
> "Color preferences" would be perfectly satisfactory for the usual readers of
> documents I work on. But I can see certain target audiences where the
> superfluous "choose the one you want" (all single-syllable words) would be more
> readily understood than "set your preference."
>
> Yes, reading comprehension can really be that bad.
>
I don't really think this is an issue of reading
comprehension. Perhaps my example wasn't entirely
clear. I think that "Choose the colors for your
screen" is perfectly clear and that including a
phrase about readers choosing something they like
is unnecessary (for example, "Choose the colors that
you want for your screen").
-- Janice
***********************************************************
Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com | this message is the return address
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Janice Gelb" <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>
>> It's the "one you want" part that I don't think
>> is necessary. "In the Display window, set your
>> color preferences" seems fine to me. Saying
>> "In the Display window, choose the color settings
>> that you want to use" is the wording that I think
>> is superfluous.
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
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-