atw: Re: Should we give the users what they want?

  • From: "Anthony Self" <ASelf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:45:26 +1100

Hi Brian

Are you suggesting that we should abandon the "reader is king" principle, and 
write not for the reader, but for an idealised persona of how we would prefer 
our reader to be? Too bad if our readers can't maintain concentration for 10 
minutes... suck it in, cut your hair, get a job, and grow up! 

And when none of these "new readers" read our manuals (because they've been 
written in an alien language), and turn instead to a peer-generated document 
written/presented in a familiar form, how are we going to find work?

Our job isn't to maintain English standards! (Leave that to Hyacinth Bucket!) 
Ours is to communicate to our readers in a language our readers understand. 

Tony



>>> "Brian Clarke" <brianclarke01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 11/03/09 3:32 PM >>>
Hi Tony,

I do believe that you are falling into the trap that many first year 
undergraduates in the social sciences fall into, of thinking that statistics 
tells us what to do. The adage I used was:
Just because something is, does not mean it ought to be.

When I was a child, I spelled as a child. But, now we are grown up. We have 
learned how to make lasting, adult choices, based on adult criteria. My 
choice is for the richness that is English - not the Krap that is used by 
some unknown percentage of would-be-fashionable children. Noise by the few 
does not equal power to the people. Some of these children may grow up - and 
some may actually make adult choices, too.

Regards,
Brian. 



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