Re: Appalling English

[Richard Yanowitz <ryanowitz -at- bigfoot -dot- com>]

While no doubt well intended, if the positions illustrated here are typical 
of cultural thought in our profession, then however good we are at what we 
actually compose we're in deep trouble when it comes to thinking about our 
audiences (which ought to be our first guideline but too often isn't).

Is it possible for people not to feel they have to take sides on cultural 
differences or not to assume the superiority of their own culture (as in 
making one's own economic hegemony the yardstick [meter-stick?] for 
respecting another culture's linguistic [cultural?] merit)?

It ain't good to produce docs written by non-fluent writers who confuse 
readers with tortured language; and it equally ain't 
considerate/polite/respectful to expect people in other language groups, 
however narrowly or widely spread, to read one's native tongue (esp. when 
that tongue is as tormenting to learn as my own beloved English).

On the other hand, in good ol' capitalist spirit (caveat emptor and all 
that), vendors on both sides of this divide can apparently get away with 
distributing language goods that don't effectively service large numbers of 
customers.  Aside from promoting this sordid consequence of deifying 
supply-and-demand, such behavior reinforces that perfidious notion with 
which our profession constantly struggles--that how you present information 
really doesn't matter as long as the information is there...somewhere.

We might all be well advised to ponder the provocative nuances of this 
writer's thoughtful slogan (cited at the end of the following snippet), 
which perhaps belies the text that precedes it.


At 11:23 AM 10/31/00 , you wrote: