November 2nd, 2005

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Technical Writing
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The Gomery Report is Surprisingly Readable

I didn’t believe Derek when he made this point, but then I hadn’t actually looked at the official report (it’s got it’s own URL, too). For those non-Canucks out there, Justice Gomery is investigating a major political scandal that recently occured in Quebec.

As Derek notes, “Gomery wrote the report itself in the first person, using the active voice in places you’d never expect it.” Here’s a sample paragraph from the Who Is Responsible section:

The notion that Mr. Pelletier and Mr. Gagliano could provide political input without strongly influencing the decision-making process is nonsense and ignores the obvious reality that the expression of an opinion to a subordinate official by the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff or the Minister amounts to an order.

Well done, Mr. Gomery! My only complaint is that the individual sections of the report are apparently only available in PDF.

Comments: 2 Responses so far

Jeff
November 2nd, 2005
1:03 pm

That’s really a beef of mine too - PDFs for content that the majority of people just want to browse on screen.

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jd
November 2nd, 2005
6:56 pm

my complaint: adobe reader take forever to open a pdf but anything else opens them quickly (on my mac, anyway). you’d think that adobe would have a lock on their own files.

if it is first person (more literary?), that’s sonmething to love. i remember a prof telling the class that the first poem written in canada was this very long report done by a guy working at a hudson’s bay trading post. he wrote all about the people there and the landscape and the business environment, but (memory, don’t fail me now!)in free verse. perhaps this new report is a nod to canada’s literary past.

[Reply]

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