Bug#422750: developers-reference: 6.5.2.5 should not suggest passive voice or that scientific publications always avoid first person
Package: developers-reference
Severity: minor
Section 6.5.2.5 reads:
> 6.5.2.5 Do not use first person
>
> You should avoid the use of first person ("I will do this..." or "We
> recommend..."). The computer is not a person and the Debconf templates do
> not speak for the Debian developers. You should use neutral construction and
> often the passive form. Those of you who already wrote scientific
> publications, just write your templates like you would write a scientific
> paper.
This should not recommend the use of the passive voice; active voice does not
require anthropomorphizing the computer. For example, "enable this if ..."
and "disable this if ...", as opposed to "this can be enabled if ..." and
"this can be disabled if ...".
This should also not suggest that all scientific publications use passive
voice or impersonal style. For some reason, many people get taught that
scientific publications should always use passive voice and impersonal style;
however, many other people do not subscribe to this viewpoint. Some journals,
such as Nature (see
http://www.nature.com/authors/author_services/how_write.html ), specifically
recommend the use of the active voice.
I suggest removing all but the first two sentences, resulting in the
following:
> 6.5.2.5 Do not use first person
>
> You should avoid the use of first person ("I will do this..." or "We
> recommend..."). The computer is not a person and the Debconf templates do
> not speak for the Debian developers.
Ideally, I think another subsection of 6.5.2 should exist, explicitly
recommending the use of active voice. Something like this:
> 6.5.2.N Use active voice
>
> Write in the active voice, and avoid the passive voice. For example, write
> "Enable this if ..." rather than "This can be enabled if ...".
- Josh Triplett
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