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Subject:Re: Use of the First Person From:Dave Whelan <dwhelan -at- PANGEA -dot- CA> Date:Fri, 30 Jan 1998 12:16:18 -0600
I don't think that any writing style should be rejected out of hand. It's
another case of writing for the intended audience. There are always
trade-offs, that's one of the things that make this job interesting. A help
file for a widely distributed software product, where ease of reading for
non-experts may be paramount, is not the same thing as a standards
publication, where the emphasis must be on precise language.
In this case, the people who read the standard are probably experts in
their field and are quite prepared to put in the necessary effort to get
what they need from the document. They expect it to be in a certain format
that allows no misunderstanding. "The research team" or other such
descriptive term is more precise than "we", so it could be considered to be
more appropriate in this instance. Using first person does not rule out
active voice, but precision may require passive voice in some
circumstances.
The need for precision is also the reason you see the word "shall" used in
standards documents. "Shall" does sound old fashioned now and it is
gradually retreating from the onslaught of the more favored "will", but
there is still a lot of life left in it, especially as a more compelling
directive. Standards writers include a definition of words such as "shall"
and "will" in published standards precisely because of the ambiguity--if
there is a difference in meaning, it could be crucial to understanding.
No style of writing is the only way to go. Just as a recent thread
explained that using different typographic styles affects meaning, so does
using different writing styles.
Regards,
Dave.
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Dave Whelan, Technical Writer
Whelan Technical Services (204) 334-1339 mailto:dwhelan -at- pangea -dot- ca http://www.pangea.ca/~dwhelan
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