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> That would work fine in situations relating solely to
> the reader. This problem comes up when I have to
> describe how the reader will interact with other
> people (the general manager, the production manager,
> the sales rep) and what the responses of these other
> people may or should be. For example:
>
> "If you have a technical emergency and your area's
> Technical Support Specialist is not available, leave a
> message describing the problem on their voice mail.
> If they do not return your call within 30 minutes,
> contact the Support Desk."
How about:
"...leave a voice mail message describing the problem. If your call is not
returned within 30 minutes..."
?
Suzette
>
> The reader would certainly notice (and most likely be
> distracted by it) if I were to use the phrase
> "Technical Support Specialist" three times within that
> short paragraph.
I agree. The point I tried to make on the list was that sometimes a straight
substitution was not a viable alternatives, and that re-wording the phrase
sometimes is the best solution.
>
> Otherwise, I use the second person when describing
> what the user will be doing with our software.
Makes it sound so much friendlier for the user :-)
