Re: spec writing - is simple ever wrong ?

Subject: Re: spec writing - is simple ever wrong ?
From: Lois Patterson <loisrpatterson -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 22:04:07 -0700

In this case, it sounds reasonable to remove that stilted language. But I
have seen cases where inexperienced writers want to remove
industry-specific jargon and replace it with non-specific "simple" language
that does not actually have the same meaning.

Lois Patterson


On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 5:18 PM, Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> wrote:

> On Tuesday, July 30, 2013, Monique Semp wrote:
>
> > I’m editing a specification, and I was merrily redlining all sorts of
> > convoluted wording to be simple and straight-forward.
>
>
> It could have something to do with groups wanting to defer liability onto
> another party. So when something bad happens each can blame the other for
> not properly interpreting, or writing, the spec.
>
> And most specs are temporary documents that are used to convince management
> to build whatever is specified. Then all the work goes into the detailed
> design documents and nobody refers to the spec again.
>
> -Tony
>
>
> --
> Email: tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca
> Phone: +1-604-710-5164
> Web: http://tonychung.ca
>
>
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References:
spec writing - is simple ever wrong ?: From: Monique Semp
Re: spec writing - is simple ever wrong ?: From: Tony Chung

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