On 1/14/12 12:26 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
On 1/14/2012 12:36 AM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
I confess that it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when people insist on
avoiding words like you and your. I completely disagree that it's a
problem.
And there are times where avoiding it can cause problems and make the
text
more awkward (though it is true that you can often avoid it fairly
easily if
you really want to).
(though it is true that it can be avoided fairly easily)
Fixed that for you. What advantage does the "you" version have, besides
upping the word count?
But I know that there are plenty of technical writers who would agree
with
you.
I cannot recall any professional technical book that used "you" (yes,
I'm sure you can find an example!). It's like wearing jeans to a wedding.
"You" can convey a conversational, intimate tone that can be helpful.
Together with "I" for the author and "we" as the author plus the reader,
"you" can create quite a good frame.
That being said, I agree - "you" is a license that should be at best
used sparingly, as is "I".
Andrei
