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Your personal struggle with the
persona will probably show up in your prose style.
- If you are under immense pressure to
act as if the product really works well, when it's a stinker, your prose
may become a little defensive, or deliberately ambiguous.
- Your mask may slip off occasionally, as
you try to write around those embarrassing flaws in the product,
covering up the lousy parts of the interface, overlooking the messy
inconsistencies, pretending that the product works just fine.
The more intensely you feel that the
persona you have to adopt is fake, the less certain your prose will be. In
that situation, redefine your relationship with your audience.
Start writing like a human being talking
to a real individual.
Of course, you may get fired for your
effort, but you'll leave behind some decent prose. And, generally, you'll
succeed in reaching your audience.
Remember: there are several personas
available within any genre, and if you don't like the persona that your
organization has settled on, consider a change of costume.
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The brain is the neurological repository of
the human past, and personae are the hidden masks of our ancestors and
heirs.
-Camille Paglia, Sex, Art, and American Culture
"The writer" is a role, a subject position, constituted by community
constraints.
-James Porter, Audience and Rhetoric
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