Great Abstract Writing: The Two-edged Blade Of Reader Experience
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- December 28th, 2008 |
- Comments
Overview
When we compose Person Documents we rely on our Reader’s/Person’s experience to simplify our activity. This can cause problems for the Reader. This article will discuss the effects of Reader experience and how to minimize the negative effects of incompatible experience, and how to handle the writer’s assumptions about the Reader.
Writer’s Benefits: Relying on Reader Experience
When we compose, we rely on our Reader’s experience to give us a “turn point” for our Person Document. Often we make hidden assumptions about our Reader’s experience.
Here are any examples where relying on our Reader’s experience makes things easy (and causes problems) for us as writers:
Example: Exploitation a Computer’s Mouse
In writing Person Documentation for Graphical Person Interface-based computer products (much as the Windows or Mac Interface), we assume that the the Reader knows how to consume a mouse to click on items, drag, etc. This saves much background writing.
Example: Cooking: How to Measure Ingredients; Damage
Cook books economise area by (unremarkably correctly) assuming that a Reader can perform basic cooking operations (much as measuring ingredients), and damage (much as puree or cut).
Example: Common Acronyms
We rely on “common” acronyms much as AM and PM to simplify our writing lives. However, many Readers consume a 24 hour clock, and thusly AM and PM are meaningless to them.
Beware of any acronyms that you assume that your Reader knows. It is best to define acronyms in line (perhaps in parentheses) when they are first presented in that part of the Person Document.
You cannot define them only the first time they appear in the Person Document. This assumes — incorrectly — that Users read your Person Document from start to finish.
Problems Writers Cause When Assuming Person Experience
Our assumptions as writers can get us into ail.
Example: Strange Words
Here’s a gardening example: Acme’s (a fictitious company) Illustrated Guide to Gardening in Canada (1979) makes an incorrect assumption about its Readers:
In one of their definitions they consume a constituent, “the axil of a leaf” to define another constituent. “Axil of a leaf” is not listed in the book’s index, and thither is no glossary in the book. Clearly this book assumes that the Reader understands the constituent “the axil of a leaf.” I don’t, and am hence bad with the presentation.
Solution: Provide a glossary of gardening damage or a reference to a page in the book where the constituent is defined.
Example: Assuming Students’ Experience
Here is an example where an (unexpressed) assumption by a training company rendered one of their courses discarded.
In order to do the exercises in a computer programming course, students had to be able to consume an editor (a simple morpheme processor) to program the group. The only editor available on the course machines was a UNIX editor known as vi.
Regrettably, the students were not told that they needed to consume the vi editor. The course presenters assumed that the students knew vi. The students did not, and they exhausted half the course time trying to learn and deal with vi.
The hidden assumption by the training company resulted in a failed learning experience (the students never needed to consume vi again). It lost cardinal days of the four-day course time.
Don’t Present Assumptions in a Underhand Artifact
If the training company had said that, “We train on UNIX systems,” so they leave a exit for themselves when they disappoint students who do not know the vi editor. When confronted, the company could respond with, “We told you it was a UNIX group. You should know that vi is the editor available on that group.”
This underhand evidence of the assumption is foolish. It will result in a lose-lose situation.
The Bottom Line
As writers, we to make assumptions about our Reader’s experience. However, if you make assumptions, so make careful that you tell the Reader what you assume about him/her.
Entertain the assumptions that you make about your Reader. Are these assumptions binding (that is, can you really expect your Readers to meet your assumptions)? If thither is any doubt in your mind, include information explaining the damage and procedures that you assume.
Make careful that when you country assumptions, that you present them in a artifact that the Reader (educatee) can believe what the assumption means to them. Don’t be underhand about presenting the assumptions.
Person Experience Can Cause Ail for Writers
Your Reader’s experience can cause confusion. Here are any examples:
Example: Shampoo/Conditioner Product
One of my favorite examples is a combined hair shampoo and conditioner product. If a Person has experience with the abstracted products, so their experience is to:
* Shampoo: Bedewed thenhair. Massage shampoo into the hair, so rinse it out.
* Conditioner: Clean the hair. Massage conditioner into the bedewed hair, leave in the hair for cardinal or III minutes, so rinse it out.
The problem arises with the combined product. Should the Person leave the product in the hair for cardinal or III minutes (as done with the conditioner), or rinse it immediately (as done with the shampoo)?
The Person Document (product label) for a combined shampoo-conditioner should tell the Person how to consume the two-in-one product. Most much labels do not.
Example: Words Old in Sudden Distance
Your writing can set the expectations of the Reader, resulting in confusion when words are old accidentally.
An article in the Application Area (of a newspaper on June 10, 2004, page B14) described, “How the little guy can back up computer data”. The article was about computers. When I came to the condemn: “Let’s face it: backups are boring and a hassle additionally.” I wondered about the phrase “additionally.”
In computer jargon, “boot” is the process where the computer starts up (”lifts itself by its bootstraps”…by a program originally called a “bootstrap loader”). Does the author’s quote about “hassle additionally” mean that if I do backups, so my computer will be slower (”boring”) and require more activity from me to start up (”hassle additionally”)?
The consume of the phrase “additionally” is inappropriate in this article, given that “additionally” has multiple meanings. The author old it as argot for “in addition to.” Since the article was about computers, I cerebration of the computer meaning of “additionally.” The condemn would be less confusing if the author left out “additionally,” as: “Let’s face it: backups are boring and a hassle.” We’ll return to this example shortly.
Example: Functional Fixedness
An object’s function is fixed in a person’s mind. For example, a hammer’s function is to pound things. Experiments have demonstrated that people have a hard time exploitation a hammer for an different function, much as a paperweight, a prop, or a lever. This is called functional fixedness.
Functional fixedness can limit the quality of your product. Your Person Document should attempt to overcome functional fixedness. Perhaps this example will appear how critical I am of Person Documents.
I have a carpus global positioning equipment (GPS) device that keeps belt of my long walks. Sweaters and heavy coats, needed for walking in the season, make it difficult to act the GPS device on the carpus. But it is a Carpus device. Functional fixedness arises, causing me attempt to consume the GPS on my carpus. But it turns out that the GPS works advantageously when old in a pocket.
The GPS Person Document should mention this (obvious?) capability, thusly reducing the functional fixedness associated with the Carpus GPS. In my defense: I am not careful that putting the carpus GPS in a pocket is more obvious than exploitation a hammer as a paperweight.
Example: Humor
Humor relies on:
. a impalpable knowledge of the language (for example a pun)
. or a knowledge of an event (perhaps a current event or entertainment event)
on which the humor is based. Here’s an example, from an old joke:
“You’re so funny, you should be on a arrange. Thither’s one leaving in 15 minutes.”
This joke relies on the Reader’s knowing the cardinal meanings of “arrange”: (1) a place for performing, and (2) transportation old in the western Agreed States in the 1800’s. Most Readers might not know the 2nd meaning, rendering the humor a confusing act of words.
Earlier we examined the condemn: “Let’s face it: backups are boring and a hassle additionally.” The author old the phrase “additionally” as any form of folksy talk or humor. It confused the Reader.
Eliminate Humor from Your Person Document
. Humor will only confuse Users who do not believe it.
. Humor is difficult, if not impossible, to change into other languages.
I advise that you consume a writing communication that is informal and conversational, but with no attempts at humor. Remove attempts at humor when you review and revise your writing.
If you deprivation to compose humor, do it elsewhere (you should be on a arrange). Person Documents are no place to practice your humor.
The Bottom Line
Assumptions
Be careful about what you assume about your Reader. When in doubt whether or not a Reader knows something:
. Country your assumptions about your Reader
Country the assumptions in a artifact that the Reader can relate to
. When in doubt, add the information that you assume, or
. Tell your Reader where to find the assumed information
By providing or pointing to this assumed information, you increase your audience
Readers’ Experience
Be aware of how your Reader’s experience influences how he/she interprets your Person Document or uses your product. If necessary add material to your Person Document to counter your Reader’s incompatible experience.