Re: (Fwd) Re: Fwd: Importance of grammar?

Subject: Re: (Fwd) Re: Fwd: Importance of grammar?
From: "Huber, Mike" <mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 17:39:48 -0400

Most of the grammar that I know is by way of Artificial Intelligence. From
that perspective, there are two kinds of rules:
deductive and inductive. Deductive rules tell you "this is NOT a valid
construct." Inductive rules tell you "This is a way to build a potentially
valid construct."

All of the real deductive rules apply to technical writing as much as they
do to any other kind of writing. A structure that is wrong is wrong.

Most of the inductive rules are redundant in technical writing. Except for
unusual situations, all you need are simple declaratives and imperatives.
Nobody complains if you use the same three sentence structures throughout an
entire manual. Literature requires a rich variety of structures, but
technical documentation requires simplicity and comfortable patterns. In
literature, you paint a picture with relationships between words and complex
grammar. In tech, you enumerate features with a bulleted list.

Just thought of a specific set of rules that you don't have to know for
technical writing: the rules about first-person singular constructions. I
might have a problem communicating with SMEs without knowing those rules,
but I don't need them to produce documentation.

---
Office:
mike -dot- huber -at- software -dot- rockwell -dot- com
Home:
nax -at- execpc -dot- com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric J. Ray [SMTP:ejray -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM]
> Sent: Saturday, June 13, 1998 10:56 AM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Re: (Fwd) Re: Fwd: Importance of grammar?
>
> Forwarded on request.
>
> Eric's note: I'm forwarding this at Geoff's request--for
> technical reasons, he cannot post it directly. I would like
> to stress to everyone interested in this thread that the
> discussions MUST focus on technical communication--grammar
> per se and any sort of grammarian vs. not wars are not acceptable
> topics for discussion on this list.
>
> Eric
>
>
> >*************
> >Tony Markatos and I began discussing the earlier thread on the
> >importance of grammar off-list, and he declined to forward my
> >responses to his on-list reply because he felt the debate could grow
> >rather heated. Fair enough. My bottom line is that the statement
> ><<only a small sub-set of the rules of grammar come into play in
> >writing procedures>> is patently indefensible. Similarly, Tony's
> >comment that <<with grammar checkers and administrative assistants,
> >grammar is no big deal.>> is equally indefensible, as anyone who's
> >worked as an editor for any length of time can assure you. There's no
> >question grammar checkers can be useful tools, but by no means do
> >they eliminate the need to understand the basics of grammar... and
> >more than just a small subset of the rules.
> >
> >Nonetheless, it's interesting that perhaps our techwhirling is less
> >grammar-bound than some other forms of writing... so here's my
> >challenge: _are_ there any grammatical rules that we can dispense
> >with in procedural/technical writing? (Let's ignore the non-rules
> >such as banning split infinitives and ending sentences with
> >prepositions... what about the _meat_?)
>




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