atw: Chatty Style

I enjoyed the recent Virgin Credit Card application form,
e.g. "Give your other cards the flick.
      Transfer your balances now."
I didn't apply for the card but I kept the form as a great
example of "non-conformist" English which was oh-so-easy
to read.

Marcus Amann
Technical Publications Manager
TOWER Software

-----Original Message-----
From: Petra Liverani [mailto:petsky@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, 17 October 2003 11:13 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: AND, BUT, or OR as the first word of a sentence


I'm afraid I totally disagree. I have been working on insurance =
documents
for the past few months and with only one exception have found them all
pretty deadly - not that I expect them not to be. The one that wasn't =
deadly
was written in a chatty style, with the occasional corny joke and yet it =
was
extremely informative, provided historical examples which helped me
understand terms I'd seen explained several times already in "technical
language" but hadn't quite got a handle on and was generally very =
readable.
The writer's personality came through and as far as I'm concerned that =
was
not an unwelcome thing. I'm not suggesting that all technical documents =
be
written like this and most people (including myself) wouldn't have the
aptitude for it. However, apart from providing the information required =
in a
well-structured way, when you're writing a long document surely =
readability
is what you aim for - people have to get through the thing. In the hands =
of
a good writer a certain "style" enhances the reader's understanding =
rather
than reduces it.

Petra

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