> 6. Thus we should not, perhaps, accept that reader preferences > carry the day: yes or no? That was the question I asked, and not > too many correspondents have actually answered it directly. Well, not really. You've phrased the question in a few different ways, but your original question was (italics mine): > Should user preferences be the _sole_ determiner of the > media we choose for delivering technical documentation? The subject line was and is: "Should we _always_ give users what they ask for?" > But some commentators are saying that we should _listem to_ > (our readers' preferences), and thus the point of my posting. > ... _how persuaded should we (be) by their preferences_ to adopt > their preferred delivery medium? > The heart of the issue is this: should the degree of comprehension > that a particular medium offers be a _determinant_ in our decision > about what media to offer our readers? If the answer is yes, > then it would seem to follow that reader prefrences are secondary > considerations. My feeling is that comprehension is a factor (of course), reader preferences are a factor (of course), the environment, nature of the text/task