atw: Re: Pronounseeashun

  • From: "Geoffrey" <geoffrey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 10:19:25 +1100

Christine, we draw the line by looking at why we write as technical writers.
We write to communicate practical information. We do not communicate, or we
risk failing to communicate, if we do not adopt the language of our intended
audience. If our untended audience is going to find our eighteenth century
grammar quaint, stilted and distracting, then we risk communication failure.
Readers take their eye off the message as they ponder the language. So
there's one line. Likewise if we know that a significant section of our
audience will grimace if we adopt certain practices or words (given the
seemingly ineradicable  prejudice that attaches to certain words and
practices). Such prejudice causes the reader to be distracted, and what is
distracting gets in the way of communication. It thwarts the very purpose of
writing. There's another line.

 

Now suppose we were still alive in 50 years time and most English speakers
use youse as the second-person plural. Wouldn't our continuing to use you
when youse is expected  likely to be found quaint, stilted and distracting?
It would get in the way of communication, much as perambulator if used now
would. Remember that much of what caused our grandparents to grimace
attracts no notice today.

 

So, there is a line, but it is a moveable line. That line, at any one time,
is the language practices expected by the majority of our readers. It is, by
definition, conventional English. And it varies from era to era, and it
varies from English to English

 

To the fundamentalists who want to stick to the so-called rules they were
taught at school: will you continue to use an en dash (and do you use the en
dash now) to indicate that you are treating a multiplicity as a singularity
when almost no-one knows what an en dash is used for and most have never
even heard of an en dash?

 

Cheers

 

Geoffrey Marnell

Principal Consultant

Abelard Consulting Pty Ltd 

P: 03 9596 3456

M: 0419 574 668

F: 03 9596 3625

W:  <http://www.abelard.com.au/> www.abelard.com.au

 

From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christine Kent
Sent: Friday, 6 January 2012 9:23 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Pronounseeashun

 

 

 

Do youse understand?

 

(Where) Do we draw the line?

 

U get it?

 

Christine

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