Bad words
I get to read a lot of technical documentation, both at work and at home. I enjoy it, mostly. (That’s just the kind of geek I am.) The standards are still pretty low out there, but it’s getting better.
I have found this rule useful: whenever I come to the word “simply” (or equivalents, such as “just,” “easily,” and so on), I stop reading and throw away the manual. I’d rather match wits directly with the software, bad as it may be.
These words are to tech writers what “taut” and “luminous” are to film critics: filler. They come naturally, and they support efficient verbiage production by seeming to reduce the need to actually think through what you want to say.
The worst thing about them, though, is that they are lies by definition. If the procedure were really simple (or “intuitive,” or “straightforward”), I wouldn’t be wasting my time reading the directions, would I? So I don’t.
Categorised as: Geekery