Shakespearean technical writing?

["Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Leonard  Porrello notes that <<Unlike Shakespeare, as a rule, we do
not use metaphor, foreshadowing, rhyme, meter, alliteration, and
fortuitous circumstance to create overarching meanings that reveal
every facet of the human condition. Wittgenstein says of
Shakespeare's monologues that they are very much like thought itself.
I would not venture to say that about any of the technical writing
that I have ever seen.>>

I take your point, and it's true to a certain extent, but it's not
because Shakespeare's techniques lack merit in technical writing;
rather, it's because we (myself included) fall too easily into
familiar patterns and we forget to apply those techniques, suitably
altered for the different medium and purpose. Each of the examples
you mentioned has a parallel in technical writing that is probably
underused (though I'm not sure what you meant by "fortuitous
circumstance"). To whit:

metaphor: We use this all the time to make an unfamiliar concept
resemble something familiar (e.g., the trash can on the Mac desktop
is like the trashcan in your office; it holds documents until it's
emptied).

foreshadowing: In the jargon of "metadiscourse", we call this "using
advance organizers". Any time we provide context that will help
readers understand subsequent steps or say "in this section of the
manual you're going to learn to print", we're using foreshadowing to
"prime" them and get them ready for the new concept.

rhyme and meter: Although a software manual written like poetry,
rhymed or otherwise, would have some merit (e.g., I picture the
manual for MS Office done as Shelley's "Ozymandias" <g>),
that's not really the purpose of rhyme and meter. Rhyme and meter
both help make something more pleasant to read and easier to
memorize; in technical writing, the obvious equivalent is elegant
sentence structure (e.g., not separating parts of a phrase such as
verbs and adverbs that belong together, streamlining sentences
to avoid too many clauses, using words that not only say the right
thing but that also "taste" right, etc.).

alliteration: The purpose of alliteration is to create a consistent
pattern that catches the mind's eye and focuses attention. The
comparable technical writing technique would be appropriate use of
parallel structures (both within sentences and between sections).

fortuitous circumstance: I'm assuming you mean something like Deus ex
machina, when the solution comes along at just the right time to save
the hero? If so, that's what context-sensitive help and "what is
this?" popups are for.

So maybe we won't ever get our manuals studied in literature class,
but that doesn't mean we can't use the same techniques the great
writers used; after all, the underlying principles of human
comprehension are identical, whatever the medium.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Microsoft Word: It grows on you... but with a little fungicide,
you'll be feeling much better real soon now!"--GH


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=