Re: Turn on / off - Switch on / off - Start up / Shut off etc

["Ned Bedinger" <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

----- Original Message -----
>From: "Broberg, Mats" <mabr -at- flir -dot- se>
>To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2004 7:26 AM
>Subject: Turn on / off - Switch on / off - Start up / Shut off etc
>

>
>Dear listmembers,
>
>Any suggestions for a clear and unambigious term for "energizing" /
>"de-energizing" a piece of equipment?

I perceive "energize" as a little bit exotic.  That makes it a good choice
for a controlled term, to me, because it doesn't have a lot of connotative
baggage from other contexts. Scanning my own pool of working vocabulary
(including words I use, and words I've put on hold, or am considering),
'energize' seems specifically not available in the electro-energetic sense
you propose, because it currently is co-opted by advertising campaigns
touting nutritional supplements. It is not obviously the wrong word choice
for equipment contexts, but it might evoke a sublime sense of invigorating
the equipment or restoring it to health and vitality.

How about "cycle", meaning  "use the power switch to reset the equipment."
It appears in service and troubleshooting contexts, in my experience,.as a
technique for restoring equipment to an initial state, especially with
equipment that performs some sort of boot or power-on sequence (self-tests,
for example).  I have seen it used in manuals by non-native English speakers
to simply mean "power on" instead of "power off, then on", but I suspect
that this is an artifact of translation, where the author or translator has
an extremely limited English vocabulary based on a limited selection of
other English editions of tech manuals.

If 'cycle' is the word you need, please, have it with my complements.

That was a nice job you did of reviviing the literal origins of the various
switch operating descriptions. As noted, the correct way to operate a switch
does depend on the type of switch, but English seems to have aggregated them
for non-technical contexts.  The literal instruition would still be helpful
in a mixed switch bank, because it would provide the user with some
conirmation that the right switch is selected.

When I need a word that aggregates all switch operations, I use "power" +
on/off/etc, though in the back of my mind, I think this suggests equipment
that has a dedicated power supply. I hope you can judge that for yourself,
because I think I might have fallen into the "tech writing is like walking
on eggshells" trap, a form of analysis paralysis.

Good luck, and thanks for the pointers to controlled vocabularies.

Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com







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