RE: Colons and translation?

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Pro TechWriter wrote:
 
> Geoff, what a great explanation. I see an article here for someone,
maybe
> the STC journal. Thanks for writing this. You answered a bunch of my
> questions as well, because our standards don't allow parentheses or
colons
> because of "translation issues." <snip>

Yes, thanks, Geoff -- that was excellent. 

PT, are you _serious_ -- no parentheses?? Jeez, I chafe under the
silliness of no gerunds in headings. I'd be in open revolt against a no
parentheses rule (I'm rather fond of parenthetical remarks, you know). 

Regarding the "gerunds are hard to translate" nonsense, I think I'll
quote some Geoff Hart at them: 
 
<snip> any translator who claims to have difficulty with standard
> > English punctuation or grammar should be fired immediately and with
no
> > sympathy. </snip>

<snip> The fact that a given structure does not exist in a second
> > language is irrelevant: either the translator understands the source
> > language, with all its quirks, well enough to translate it, or they
> > don't. Some natural structures of a language can make the task more
> > difficult for speakers of another language, but that difficulty is
> > inherent to the job of translation, and those structures should only
> > be avoided in speech or untranslated text (where they can cause
> > problems for non-translators), not in text that will be translated.
</snip>

Hear, hear!

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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