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Subject:Re: extra words: unnecessary or educational? From:SIANNON -at- VISUS -dot- JNJ -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Thu, 28 Aug 2003 09:08:20 -0600
I believe John Cornellier's point is a critical one, and is pertinent to
other discussions I have seen here on different topics.
In User documentation, the focus may be on procedural information, and the
"How" from the user's perspective, but Design documentation focuses on the
functional and technical information, and the "How" from the developer's
perspective. The two examples he gives are dramatically different when
viewed in these two contexts; the first is more appropriate for User docs,
whereas the second is more appropriate for Design docs.
Meaning does not exist independently from context. Audiences may vary.
(Opinions are my own.)
Shauna
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John Cornellier notes:
Drifting from the original topic, but is it better to say
"to copy files, use the transfer program..."
or
"the transfer program copies files..."
Isn't the first one more "user-centric"? It seems to me that the example
below is software-centric rather than user-centric. It's about the
software, rather than being about how the user can do things.
Seems to me, an important difference; or am I delving too far into the RNG
(Realm of the Nitty Gritty) here?
