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Subject:Re: Use of "your" From:"Tamminga, Ernie" <et -at- DSC -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 17 Jul 1997 07:23:14 -0700
Methinks that's from the olden days, when engineers instead of tech
writers formulated the "standards" for tech writing. I recall an
engineer or two referring to rules like this as being intended to
produce "objective language" (as opposed to what, I don't know...
subjective?).
The "convention" is no longer (as) widely practiced, although still
widely enough to obscure the meaning of the publications put out by some
companies.
--------
Ernie Tamminga
Director, InfoEngineering
Digital Sound Corporation
-----------------------------------------------
Opinions expressed are my own, and not necessarily those of Digital
Sound Corporation
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kris Olberg [SMTP:kjolberg -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM]
>Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 1997 6:37 PM
>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject: Use of "your"
>
>I was taught years ago--too many years, actually--that a writer or
>interface designer should not refer to items as being possessed, such as in
>"your mail," "your keyboard," "your clients," "your machine," etc.
>
>My questions about this are:
>
>(1) why did we adopt this convention? (like I said, it's been too many
>years for me)
>(2) is this convention still widely practiced? was it ever widely
>practiced?
>(3) why or why not?
>
>Regards...Kris
>-------------------------
>kolberg -at- actamed -dot- com
>kris -at- olberg -dot- com
>
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