Re: It is . . . . .

[Betsy Maaks <bmaaks -at- FRAME -dot- COM>]

At 15:50 8/8/95 EDT, you wrote:
>Recently, to answer the framis/whoosie question, I saw the following
>suggestion:

>The whizbang is a ___. It is used for ____. It requires whoozies (see above).

>I wish to comment on the It is . . structure in general and not criticize
>Betsy Maaks in particular.

Sherrill,

I guess you took it literally, and since I didn't explain not to, I stand
corrected. Not knowing what whatsis and whizbangs are, I wanted to
demonstrate that they need to be explained. It depends on what the main
topic of the sentence is. It also depends on whether or not the terms were
previously defined. It may be that the whatsis and whoosie need to be
defined as part of a whole system; if this is the case, then the writer
needs to define the pieces, then explain their interconnections. I think we
need to build logical idea flows, from definitions of terms to
analyses/syntheses of more complex ideas.

I run across a lot of writers who *love* to construct these multi-topic,
complex, say-it-all-in-one-breath sentences:

ORIGINAL SENTENCE (REAL EXAMPLE)

"The diversity in levels of users and their differing modes of use of the
documentation and help system dictates that the system be designed to take
advantage of the latest hyper-text links techniques to enable a user to get
to the required information in the right level of detail so as to most
expeditiously meet their needs."

ANALYSIS

There are three ideas here:
(1) users have different modes and levels
(2) design the system with hyper links*
(3) users need to get the right info

SUGGESTED SOLUTION (this applies to whoosies and whatsises, too)

So set up an argument that centers on the main idea (*):

"Users have different modes and levels of learning from reading
documentation and help systems. They also need to get the information they
require in the least amount of time. In order to meet these user
requirements, we suggest designing the system by using hypertext links,
because they accommodate users' differing modes of learning and they present
the requested information immediately."

They aren't exactly short and stubby, but they build an argument and a
suggested resolution with an explanation why the argument is resolved.

Sorry about the "it is..." but I was not advocating recreating Dick and Jane
(yeah, that dates me). See Jane. Jane has a pencil. Jane has paper. See Jane
write. See reader fall asleep... . .  .   .   .

Betsy Maaks


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