P'.s _Warlock_ Musings--Corrected Text

[joeallonby]

> 
> me:
>>>>> I'm glad some of us
>> managed to resist the voices that said these
>> uncollected pieces aren't worth reading. <<<
>> 
> 
> Still glad. 

I enjoyed the Boeing article as a great example of corporate or technical
writing. Having spent some time (way too much) in both the publishing and
financial services branches of corporate America, I am all too well familiar
with bad writing, "verbing", memospeak, verbal pretension for the sake of
self-aggrandizement, and intentionally obfuscating language. I think
"Togetherness" should be used as a teaching tool to show how this type of
writing can be done well.

Kurt Vonnegut once wrote "The one subject on which Americans are almost
arrogantly well-informed is that which they do for a living".

Bad technical writing is destructive because it often insults the readers'
intelligence while boring them to tears. Pynchon got my attention, and
cracked me up, with the passage about ambiguous hand signals that could be
interpreted variously as "go faster, the trolley just ran over my foot, or
the General is coming". In this case, the reader would say "It's funny
because it's true." The author has now, through the use of humor, made a
connection with the reader and established that he is on his side and
understands the situation from his point of view. The reader will now enjoy
reading the technical manual and retain the information presented instead of
looking upon it as a mind-numbingly boring chore.

The hand signal passage resonated with my particular experience in a funny
way because I now frequently have to teach hand signals to subordinate
workers for communicating with crane operators. The running gag is "I think
that one meant either 'winch over' (a technical impossibility) or 'send the
detail cop for more coffee'".

At any rate, I got a kick out of it and would like to read more of this kind
of obscure but telling stuff from my favorite author.

Peace,
Joe