You're right, Alan. The Documentation Style Guide for OpenSolaris (OSSG) doesn't include anything about the use of the first-person pronoun. In the Sun Editorial Style Guide (ESG), there's a section in Chapter 1 titled "Pronouns," which addresses that issue. However, Chapter 1 isn't included in the OSSG, as there was some need to shorten the guide. (Chapter 1 also addresses topics like capitalization, contractions, abbreviations, and punctuation.) However, if folks think we should add some guidelines about first-person pronouns to the OSSG, we can certainly do that.
I agree with Steff's view about not liking the use of "I" in technical documentation. However, "I" is very appropriate in blogs and signed articles. In response to Ben's question: My question for us is, is the Style Guide relevant to docs today and/or is it relevant to all forms of documentation (blog, wiki, traditional manuals, white papers, etc)? My sense is that the OSSG is relevant to all of those forms of documentation. The two chapters on online writing in particular can apply to blogs and wikis. That said, there are likely some guidelines that could be added about blogs and wikis. In fact, internally at Sun, we have just started discussing the idea of devising some best practices for wikis. Also, let me note that the OSSG is in the process of being updated with relevant additions and clarifications from the last update of the ESG. I've completed the updates to chapters 1-7 and after a hiatus, I'm ready to finish the rest. I'm assuming that's still a useful task to work on. Rainer has been a big help by providing feedback on each chapter. Cheers, Alysson This message posted from opensolaris.org
