Question

You are hired as a help desk support person at a large company. John (a sales assistant) calls you and uses the following words to describe a problem.

I came in this morning in the office and started my computer, and then all hell broke loose. All kinds of things started happening on my screen. I have no idea what is going on. But my screen is showing some kind of messages, and I think that my computer has been hacked by Russians.

• Identify and describe specific instances of ambiguity, vagueness, euphemism, emotional connotation, empty meaning, or other pitfalls within the above passage. Explain your conclusions.

• If this was your computer and you were trying to explain the above problem to a tech support person, how would you word it? How would you avoid using the above mentioned communication pitfalls?

• As a tech support person, what questions would you ask to isolate the problem? (List at least 5 questions.)

Answer 1

The phrases like "all hell broke loose "and "I think that my computer has been hacked by Russians " are emotional connotation and empty meaning. Also phrases like "some kind of messages" and "All kinds of things" are vague and ambiguous phrases.

This message could have been phrased as:  I came in this morning in the office and started my computer, the screen got black and many messages started appearing. Can you please help figuring what is he problem?

The question to be asked are:

1. At what time you started your computer?

2. Did you correctly turned it off last time?

3. What messages are there?

4. Has anyone else used it?

5. Did you downloaded some malicious files?