Technical communication inherited many of the stylistic conventions ad
hered to within scientific discourse. This article examines current theories
and research that support the contention that some of these conventions
should no longer be applied across the board. In particular, the effect of analo
gy and direct address (2nd person versus 3rd person) on novices'
comprehension and experts'preference are discussed and evaluated through a
series of controlled experiments. The results of these experiments suggest that
analogies have a tremendous effect upon the ability of readers to freely recall
material at a later time. Direct address does not appear to affect comprehen
sion, although subject-matter experts preferred 2nd-person to 3rd-person
sentence construction.
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