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Subject:Re[2]: Readers in the real world From:Joyce Flaherty <flahertj -at- SMTPGW -dot- LIEBERT -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 17 Mar 1995 13:39:04 EST
Arthur writes:
"I maintain that our readers are humans, not robots, and that if we
really studied them, we'd discover that they read our docs more or less
the way they read anything else -- in fits and starts, and looking for
what they need, rather than what would be easiest for us to give them.
They don't cozy up with a doc like they do with a novel, and read every
word."
============
Actually, some people do read every word.
Learners are either holistic or serialistic. The holistic learner reads
every page of a manual from beginning to end. The serialistic learner
reads the overview (or equivalent) and goes to the topic of interest
skipping everything between.
I think the holistic learner must be very frustrated by non-linear doc,
such as help files and hypertext.
