TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
"Brierley, Sean" wrote:
>
> English is great, isn't it?
>
> Certainly, people are using "install" as a noun. However, I don't think
> these folks have stopped to think whether "installation" might be a better
> choice.
This is a small matter in itself. However, it does bring up some general
issues worth mentioning.
George Orwell, one of my literary heroes, suggests using the smallest
suitable word. In particular, he suggests avoiding Latinate words or
endings whenever an alternative exists.
To these suggestions, I'd add my own observation that, the smaller the
word, the quicker people read it. That's certainly true of me, even
though the vocabulary I understand is probably at least three times the
size of the one I use in tech-writing.
By these standards, I favor "install" in most circumstances. About the
only time I would use "installation" is as an occasional variation, or
to add a somewhat more formal tone (assuming that I would ever want to).
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com
"And if you had some spirit then it wouldn't be so bad,
It's your awesome anonymity which makes me get so mad."
- Attila the Stockbroker, "Vegetables"
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available 4/30/01 at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001 Conference East,
June 4-6, Baltimore, MD. Now covering Acrobat 5. Early registration deadline
April 27. http://www.pdfconference.com.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
