On Thu, Feb 09, 2012 at 12:20:06PM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote: > I have just received a review by a l10n team of a package of mine. > > The reviewer seems to be under the impression that there is something > wrong with the computer speaking to the user in the first person. For > example: > > > - If you approve, I will edit /etc/X11/app-default/XTerm for you, and > > - save your old file as XTerm.backup.not-trad. (Note that this is a > > - conffile so you may get prompts from dpkg about it in the future.) > > The suggested alternative from the reviewer: > > > + If you choose this option, /etc/X11/app-default/XTerm will be modified > > + and the old file will be kept as XTerm.backup.not-trad. [...] > > Good plain English style is to use the simplest constructions and > sentences that will serve, including avoiding needless use of the passive > voice. This is not just my opinion. The Plain English Campaign[1] > howto guide's[2] 2nd and 3rd bullet points on the summary page are: > * Prefer active verbs > * Use `you' and `we' > Also relevant is their guide to (paper) forms[3], which contains this > imprecation: > * Make it personal > Use `you' rather than, for instance, `the applicant' [etc.] > Use `we' rather than, for instance, `the council' [etc.] Yes, but these are about councils and persons, if I understand correctly; not about computers. > I don't know where the English l10n team got the idea from that there > is something wrong with a computer speaking to the user in the first > person. But in my opinion this criticism is entirely misplaced. I believe this stems from a feeling that having the computer speak in first-person form implies some form of (artificial?) sentience on the part of the computer. A computer is an inanimate object that just happens to have the capability to make calculations and interact with humans. Would you refer to a table as a person? A computer cannot refer to itself, because it does not have a self. Whenever I see a first-person statement on the part of the computer, I don't actually read it as coming from the computer; instead, I read it as coming from the programmer who wrote the actual statement--a person. Having a first-person form coming from a programmer is somewhat awkward; as you say: > [...] I > think it is incorrect to use the first person singular when writing as > the software author, because Free Software is a collaborative > enterprise: the authors are always in principle collective and thus > plural even if in practice there is a principal or single human > author. and therefore I think the reviewer is correct and the first-person form should indeed not be used. > My reviewer also seems to think there is (sometimes?) something wrong > with the use of the second person to refer to the user or the owner of > the system. For example: > > > - Optionally, this package will edit your system configuration to make > > + Optionally, this package will edit the system's configuration to make > > the default fonts used by xterm refer to the traditional font. > > > > Unpersonnalize. > > Again, I think my version is clearer, But possibly wrong. The person configuring the system need not necessarily be the owner of the system. I believe 'this system' rather than 'the system' would be better, but that's a bit nitpicking. At any rate, 'your system' implies ownership, which may not be in line with reality. -- The volume of a pizza of thickness a and radius z can be described by the following formula: pi zz a
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