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.
>He's got you on two counts:
>
>1. Grammar (I hate it when somebody knows more about that than me. Or is
>it more than I?)
More than I. (I think you knew that and were just trolling, but I answered anyway.)
>2. Title. He's your boss. In this case he also gets to call on the dreaded
>"because I said so" rule.
That's a dangerous attitude. If you are hired to know more than the boss about clear writing, then you should manage the relationship in such a way that title doesn't matter.
>
>Out of curiosity, can you give an example? I'm a big proponent of
>conversationally accurate writing when possible, and would like to see
>what your complaint is.
<on topic>I used to parrot the dictum that you should write as you speak. Well, it works for the way _I_ speak, perhaps. But it definitely does not work for the way a lot of people speak. In particular, people who tend to stand and deliver, with PowerPoint slides, in sales presentations, management reviews, and other business environments, use a lot of bloviation (not to mention throat-clearing and hand-waving expressions) that needs to be edited out of their written prose. They really are writing the way they speak, but when you look at the text you realize that they can be effective speakers but lousy writers.</on topic>
>For example, I think prepositions are GREAT things to end sentences with.
>But that's just me.
>
"That's me" is colloquially correct, even if grammatically incorrect. "That is I" is stilted and is appropriate only in period British drama. As for prepositions, though, grammar (in the modern sense of the syntactic rules that describe how native speakers string words together) has never prohibited using them at the end of a sentence.
Dick
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Now's a great time to buy RoboHelp! You'll get SnagIt screen capture
software and a $200 onsite training voucher FREE when you buy RoboHelp
Office or RoboHelp Enterprise. Hurry, this offer expires February 28, 2002. www.ehelp.com/techwr
---
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.
