Kayle's Corner

I'm reading homework, and the sentence says "It involves integration with all the functional areas, frequently via ERP."

I say, "Erp? What is Erp?"

So I look back over the page. No ERP.

I look back over the chapter. No ERP.

I look in the glossary. No ERP.

I look in the Index. Please, God, let it be in the index. No ERP.

I find instead: ERP II. See Extended ERP. I go to Extended ERP, find the page, and basically find "extended ERP (ERP that has been extended)". :P

Not only is every page chock full of acronymns, but most of the acronyms stand for words that are essentially gobbledygook. So I have abbreviated gobbledygook couched in lines and lines of gobbledygook. I feel like I'm translating every paragraph. I have a highlighter in hand so I can pick out the words that actually mean something, and I translate the acronyms with pencil in the margin when I know what they are.

On top of all that, every other paragraph starts with, "Another major characteristic." How many characteristics can be called major before we have to break down and say that they're all equally important, and no characteristic is actually major or minor? The authors also repeatedly say that "This is closely related to [acronym]." I should hope that it's closely related to that acronym. That acronym (whatever it stands for) is the subject of this section. If it isn't related, it shouldn't be in this section. At the end of the section, the review questions ask, "How is [acronym] related to [acronym]?" My answer: "Closely."

Let it be known that there is more to good writing than getting your spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage correct. This book is supposed to be written to people learning about this field--not to experts in this field who already know the jargon. I'm going crazy trying to read this stuff. It took me hours to read ten pages. It's not like it's impossible to read, but it's hard; and I've had classes in English on how to avoid and repair messes like these. I feel like rewriting the whole book and sending it back to them with an insulting letter. I don't have the time for that--I hardly have time to comprehend the book before class.

Today's Moral: There are two ways to get people to read your writing.
#1: Write well, taking your audience into account.
#2: Write textbooks (they'll be forced to read it anyway).