The persona in microcomputer documentation

Traditionally, technical writers have de-emphasized their presence in their documents by adopting the role of the disinterested reporter. More recently, with the diversification of audiences for microcomputer documentation, writers have begun to abandon the traditional posture and to establish themselves as teachers, a function that pressures them to reassess their part in their prose and often to identify themselves to their audiences. This paper examines the classical notion of persona (the role adopted by the writer) as a term useful in analyzing technical documents. It isolates several rhetorical strategies that are components of the user-friendly persona and briefly speculates on the usefulness of those strategies given the interactive relationship between the writer and the audience.