Re: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures
In chapter introductions and
sections that are dedicated to the purpose of a function (i.e., screen,
field, or report), my employers feel more comfortable with passive voice. If we all had
complete authority over our documents, we all would do things a bit
differently, but that is another story altogether!!
What I'd try to find out in that case is why they prefer passive voice. Is
that really the issue, or is there something else about the tone that
they just don't know how to articulate? As Geoff Hart pointed out, even
in such sections, active voice is almost always going to yield cleaner,
clearer, more helpful results.
My 2 cents. . . .
Marie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
References:
Re: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures: From: TDean
Previous by Author:
Re: HTML editor: does everyone need to be on the same page?
Next by Author:
RE: What is a word attachment?
Previous by Thread:
Re: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures
Next by Thread:
RE: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures
Search our Technical Writing Archives & Magazine
Visit TechWhirl's Other Sites
Sponsored Ads