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.
> > > 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?
> > In my opinion, this is not anthropomorphic at all. You're not saying
> > 'the system will be happy' or 'this makes the computer feel useful'.
> Many PROGRAMMERS do this because they really, honestly, truly, believe
> that computers ARE HUMAN.
I don't know if that's really the reason or if it's just mental
shorthand, but you do hear things like "this program _expects_ to_ find_
it's_ DLLs in the .\DLL directory," and "that program _wants_ to_ see_
EPS files, not BMP files."
Clearly anthropomorphic -- but sometimes it's more important to go with
the "clearly" than to avoid the "anthropomorphic."
Regards,
--
Scott Herron | sherr19 -at- idt -dot- net
That "deep thoughts" bit at the bottom.
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html