Survey Caution

[Richmond Mathewson]

  On 29/05/2010 20:45, Jim Kanter wrote:
> This is becoming an interesting survey about who actually reads
> instructions and who just assumes the way things are...

By the time one is in one's mid-40s the brain is half-rotted  . . .   :)

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This is directly relevant to a current situation in my EFL school.

Last week I decided to run the kids through a practise PET test; and 
they all
"f**ked-up big"; this was odd as their English is reasonably good.

So, after a suitable rant on my part, and suitably splashy tears on 
their part,
we did another one (at the next class); and they all did very well indeed.

The difference being simply that I went through the instructions with them
before the second attempt (they had charged at the first one like a bull at
the matador's cape - didn't bother to read the instructions).

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Now; while I'm on this particular soap-box let me have "a go" at the
RunRev documentation:

the other day I asked a question about how to duplicate a card with all 
its controls,
scripts and so forth . . .

now the reason why I asked this question is because I searched through
the documentation under DUPLICATE and COPY . . .

now, maybe I'm thick, or maybe it just didn't occur to me to look for CLONE;

by why would it? when everything else of this sort comes under DUPLICATE.

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So; there are 2 problems; coming form each end. so to speak:-

1. is the user has to read the instructions.

2. the instructions have to be written with the user in mind.