RE: "shorthand" vs. plain writing style

Subject: RE: "shorthand" vs. plain writing style
From: "VERKERKEN Wouter" <Wouter -dot- VERKERKEN -at- swift -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 09:19:02 +0200

Hi Yves,

I'm with Andrew on this one, both as a tech writer and as a reader
("whose first language isn't English"). Nasty, those gerunds.

Regards,
Wouter


>Yves Barbion wrote:
>
>> I'm doing some research on car repair manuals. A typical
>writing style
>> here seems to be some sort of "shorthand" English, in which articles
>> and pronouns are omitted. For example:
>>
>> - "Remove fuel tank cover."
>> - "Drain fuel tank and clean fuel filler neck and surrounding area."
>> - "Unscrew securing bolt and remove tank flap unit with rubber cup."
>> - "Remove securing bolts on filler neck."
>> - "Ensure fuel hoses are tight."
>>
>> Any thoughts/opinions about this writing style? Pros and cons? Where
>> does this writing style come from? Effect on the readability and
>> translatability of the text?
>
>Yves:
>
>Removal of articles and prepositions is a false economy; instructions
>written this way take longer to read and parse than
>instructions written
>in real English.
>
>For people whose first language isn't English, this style can be
>exceedingly hard to understand, mostly because the lack of articles and
>prepositions makes it difficult to determine parts of speech:
>
> "Remove fuel tank cover": Does that mean "remove the fuel tank and
> cover it"? Remove the fuel, the tank, AND the cover?
>
> "Drain fuel tank and clean fuel filler neck and surrounding area":
> Am I to drain the fuel tank, the clean fuel filler neck, AND the
> surrounding area?
>
> "Unscrew securing bolt": Unscrew it WHILE securing it? How?
>
> "Remove tank flap unit with rubber cup": Am I being instructed to
> use a rubber cup instead of a prybar? Or to remove this unit but
> leave installed the unit that doesn't have a rubber cup?
>
>This problem was identified decades ago by the aerospace industry; they
>addressed it with "Simplified Technical English": a dictionary and set
>of rules for writing aircraft maintenance manuals. Info on the spec
>(which is available for a fee) is here:
>
> http://www.simplifiedenglish-aecma.org/
>
>and there's an out-of-date, unofficial version of the spec here:
>
> http://www.userlab.com/Downloads/SE.pdf
>
>-Andrew
>
>=== Andrew Warren - awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com
>=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA

>
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References:
RE: "shorthand" vs. plain writing style: From: Andrew Warren

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