Re: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures

Subject: Re: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures
From: "Marie C. Paretti" <mparetti -at- vt -dot- edu>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 13:41:22 -0400

At 12:27 PM 8/31/2001, Tina Dean wrote:

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


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Re: Usage of second person or third person when writing procedures: From: TDean

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