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Subject:Re: LONG - A colloquial writing style? From:Steven Brown <stevenabrown -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 12 May 2005 05:39:30 -0700 (PDT)
Good point, Lori. Informal need not equate to
colloquial or cute.
I often joke with my wife that when I write I hear a
voice in my head. (She's in the mental health
industry, so she gets concerned about me!) When I
started this thread, instead of using the word
"colloquial," I could have used "conversational"
instead, which might better capture this idea of an
informal style.
We should imagine ourselves literally sitting with and
talking to our readers. How would we build rapport in
that context? What specific words would we use to
communicate? How do we smile at the reader using
words?
Instead of:
"Having entered all of your data on the widget screen,
proceed to the next task." Yawn....
Maybe we say:
"Okay, now that you're done entering all that
information, you're ready for the next tedious -- but
important -- step."
In some cases I think we might wind up with more
words, but they'd be more digestible, more friendly.
And that could go a long way to easing people through
tedious tasks.
Steven Brown
--- Lori Olcott <lori_olcott -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> I've dealt with many ESL users, and I don't think
> that
> informal has to equate to colloquial or cute. You
> can use
> simple sentences and encapsulated phrases to break
> down
> ideas into smaller, easier to digest phrases.
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