Re: Grammatical/Punctuation/Spelling Errors and Technical Communication

[Todd Sieling <tsieling -at- DIRECT -dot- CA>]

At the risk of exacerbating the issue, would you then say that:
public speakers and speech writers should compose all utterances addressed
to more than one person beforehand and structure them accordingly?

that engineers stress-test a shelf he or she puts up, and registers the
shelf with the proper body?

that a doctor not bandage her child's finger unless she has insurance?

These are absurd examples, of course, but so is the idea that email must,
because it is composed in text, categorically follow the rules of good form
and style. Contractions should also be avoided. No passive sentences unless
there is no way around it either. Oh, and I need some subheadings on this
email, and without an index how am I to find what I am looking for. Email is
not a manual, and i hesitate to say it is even a letter. More like somewhere
between that and a telephone call, I like to say. This is not a cry for
"invented spellings" or  a detraction of good spellers as stuffy and over
meticulous - if you want to spell check your emails in a more or less
informal forum, go ahead, but before leaping to the Reply button to point
out someone's mistake, remember that people, *especially* experts on writing
and reading, have the cognitive resources to work through irregularities. If
that doesn't work, they have the option of asking for clarification.
Todd Sieling

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Technical Writers List; for all Technical Communication issues
> [mailto:TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU]On Behalf Of Bob Morrisette
> Sent: Monday, March 08, 1999 1:24 PM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Grammatical/Punctuation/Spelling Errors and Technical
> Communication
>
>
> From: Sarah Stegall <stegall -at- TERAYON -dot- COM>
>
> >Stupid me.  I just assumed that simple
> >professional and personal self-respect would make
> >one *wince* at the prospect of posting a
> >misspelled, poorly phrased message. . . . . . .etc.
>
> I nominate Sarah's words as the "Post of the Month."
> We should act like writers at all times. The walls
> have ears and e-mails have many viewers.
>
> Bob Morrisette
> writer1 -at- sabu -dot- ebay -dot- Sun -dot- com
>
>
> ==================================================================
> =========
>
>
>

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