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RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?
Subject:RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age? From:"Daniel Ng" <kjng -at- gprotechnologies -dot- com> To:"'Boudreaux, Madelyn \(GE Healthcare, consultant\)'" <MadelynBoudreaux -at- ge -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:24:59 +0800
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I have Microsoft. Can we edit it with that?
I have the internet on my computer.
Brings a smile. I've actually heard this personally. Thank you for sharing
this.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: Boudreaux, Madelyn (GE Healthcare,consultant)
[mailto:MadelynBoudreaux -at- ge -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 2:26 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?
Not knowing what browser one is using isn't akin to not knowing how the car
works. It's more akin to not knowing what kind of car one drives, or
perhaps, if it's a manual or an automatic.
Some things I've heard said by reasonably intelligent adults (and the
automobile equivalents):
"I have the internet on my computer." ("I have the auto industry in my
garage.")
"I want to read your blog. What's the email address for it?" ("I would like
to ride in your car with you. Shall I hop on and start pedaling?") "I was
editing the document in Microsoft." ("I was driving down the road in the
Ford Motor Company.") "I have Adobe. Can we edit it with that?" ("I have
AMC. Can we drive there in that?")
People regularly mix up email and browsers, refer to a program only by the
maker's name, etc.
Probably, we have too much to think about. Certainly, as long as we click
the right icon, it doesn't matter if we call Photoshop and Acrobat both by
the same name, or confuse a URL with an email address. But it does mean
that, as writers, we're dealing with a public who can't be bothered to use
the right words, but who will certainly be unhappy if we don't. But it's not
the same as not knowing how to make a corset or repair a carburetor.
And then we have to define what "it" is. As in, "It's broken. When I press
the button, it doesn't work. Can you fix it?"
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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