RE: Grammar - The Gotcha Microsoft Gives

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

mattgras -at- comcast -dot- net wrote:
 
> You miss my drift.

No, I don't. I'm all too familiar with your drift; I just reject it. 
 
> I am a person.

Is that all? And only that? You're never a writer, reader, a driver, a buyer, ... ? In your documents, when you have to refer to someone other than the reader, do you always and exclusively refer to them as "a person" with no other identifying information? 
 
> I am not a "user," a "customer," or a "consumer."

You are when you use, buy, or consume something. 
 
> All those terms present me in relation to products or services, and
> regard me as a cog in a corporate machine.

They present you in relation to the things you use, buy, and consume. Or are you living in an ethereal world where you don't actually interact with _things_? 

They present you as an _actor_, suggesting volition and control, and thus as the _opposite_ of a cog. 
 
> This is, I think, a major problem in our world and one of the reasons
> why profits are more highly regarded than people.

Oh, puh-leez. 


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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