Ego

[Mark Levinson <mark -at- MATIS -dot- INGR -dot- COM>]

Standard practice seems to be for the writer to be invisible,
ego-less.  For a reference work, perhaps, but what about tutorials,
introductory pieces, etc?

** Often an identifiable writer-ego works well in third-party documentation, but
   in the manufacturer's own documentation it can be cumbersome.  Every
   company I've worked for suffers enough panic just producing accurate manuals
   without making sure that the quality of humor is not strained.  I imagine
   there's nothing more irritating to a user than a giggling writer who has
   the facts wrong.

   The Durante Effect is also a problem:  everybody wants to get inta da act.
   Who decides what writers (or user interface developers) have the proper
   personality to showcase?  I don't know any companies with in-house literary
   critics.

   Personally, for that reason, I'd exclude even amusing names like Phil
   O'Dendron, but in general I agree strongly with Sue Gallagher's image
   of "me the book."  The book shouldn't say "Help, I'm a creative genius
   cruelly consigned to technical writing."  It should be conversational
   for the sake of comfortable reading.  It should say, "I was born
   just to help you."
__________________________________________________________________________
Mark L. Levinson, SEE Technologies, Box 544, Herzlia, Israel
mark -at- matis -dot- ingr -dot- com | voice +972-9-584684, ext. 230 | fax +972-9-543917