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Subject:Anthropomorphic Phrases From:Matthew J Long <mjl100z -at- MAIL -dot- ODU -dot- EDU> Date:Tue, 5 Aug 1997 10:47:36 -0400
This one's not in the archives:
I learaned and have always heard that using anthropomorphic phrases in
technical writing is a taboo and, in general, I avoid it, but I was
wondering what it is that makes it so bad? Any books that cover this?
Thoughts? Opinions?
Recently I was explaining how to use wild card characters when conducting
a search in a database when I wrote "When you enter a word or phrase in
one of the fields, the system will search for exact matches." What is
wrong with this phrase. It sort of gives the system a personality then,
but what makes that a bad thing? Maybe the users (who are primarily
attorneys and paralegals) would be more productive if they felt that the
computer was more... well .... human like (anthropomorphic).
I am not looking for suggestions as to how to rephrase the statement
above--I can do that. I am just curious as to why I should want to. Why
should I avoid anthropomorphic phrases? Is it just for the sake of doing
so, or is there true merit to this practice?
TIA for you thoughts?
////////////////////////////**************************************
Matthew J. Long
Technical Writer
mjl100z -at- mail -dot- odu -dot- edu
matt -dot- long -at- justice -dot- usdoj -dot- gov
-When you can't be eloquent, choose brevity!
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