Re: Anyone heard of this Tufte guy? -Reply

[Michelle Corbin Nichols <tigger -at- VNET -dot- NET>]

>
>Lofty and intelligent but also very dry is how I would describe the
>writing. Perhaps vaguely comparable to Aristotle's Poetics.  This is
>grad school material, not the tight little paragraphs of Strunk and
>White and certainly not Visual Presentations for Dummies.

I don't think anyone has presented these books as key reference books for
technical writers.  They are key theory books for our field.  Lofty?  Aw,
shucks....let's not start up that academic versus non-academic writing
thread again!  ;)  Afterall, I can write both ways!  :)

>
>I would disagree with my friend Michelle Corbin Nichols who sees him
>as a god among technical communicators. I am willing only to go so
>far as to grant him icon status; I hope he doesn't mind.

Actually, after receiving a couple of e-mails about calling Tufte a "god" I
realize that is an unfair label or title to give to a person.  It is very
uncomfortable and has the wrong connotations.  [I was once called a
"goddess of online information" -- and remember feeling very uncomfortable
with the label and with the suggestion that I was the "be-all, end-all" of
that area (which I was nowhere close to being).]  So, I think I will simply
rephrase my accolade  to Tufte is one of the key researchers and theorists
for our field.

:)
TTFN,
Michelle Corbin Nichols

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