tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30766504.post115941238932672554..comments2024-01-15T03:36:11.777-05:00Comments on Teaching Game Design: Teaching How to Write is HardUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30766504.post-3129161309685936682012-04-12T11:06:53.580-04:002012-04-12T11:06:53.580-04:00I realize it's several years after you have wr...I realize it's several years after you have written this, but I just came across it.<br /><br />With regards to writing in the second person, avoiding terms such as "the player" or "the user," I think you seemed to have found the answer but then ignored it (probably because it is beaten out of us in our English and Grammar classes).<br /><br />The answer is Passive voice. Typically it is a poor writing choice to use passive voice. But why is it a bad choice? Because it de-emphasizes the actor and focuses on the action or the recipient of the action. In this case, that is exactly what you are <b>trying</b> to do. It doesn't matter if it was the user, the player, tom, dick or harry that pushes the button. What matters is "the button X <i>is pushed</i>", or "the potion <i>is selected</i>".<br /><br />Another alternative, which I learned in Journalism, is to write in the transitive present tense, e.g., "select<i>ing</i> a potion <i>does</i> this" or "push<i>ing</i> button X <i>results</i> in that".<br /><br />Just my thoughts. Great blog! Thanks for making the time to keep it.<br /><br />PatrickAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01370367713134563587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30766504.post-1159887676434214392006-10-03T11:01:00.000-04:002006-10-03T11:01:00.000-04:00I learned to write in that "unnatural" style thank...I learned to write in that "unnatural" style thanks to my high school english teachers who insisted I never use first- or second-person approaches to my formal writing. "This isn't a casual letter, don't make it personal," and all that. Once I got into college, I had a professor tell my class that hey, our high school english teachers were wrong. Nothing against my high school english teachers, but what they taught were standards that existed a decade or two before.<BR/><BR/>I don't know how much my experience applies to others, but everyone I've met who writes papers in third person learned it in high school. Moreover, a lot of reading material for academia uses third-person. If the "authority" uses third-person, I as an undergrad student would feel compelled to emulate that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com