RE: Need Your Opinions re Simplified English (Can I quote you?)

[Richard Lippincott <richard -dot- lippincott -at- ae -dot- ge -dot- com>]

	>Do any of you have an opinion about using Simplified
	>or Controlled English?

I can see the need for it in some applications, but I doubt that I'll ever
be an advocate for its universal usage. I don't always feel that the
simplified terminology is the grammatical best choice. 

	>What do you feel the impact is to you as a writer?

Mainly the impact seems to be that about every two or three weeks, I'll get
a draft back from review with a few words marked up for change because I
didn't use simplified English. It amounts to things like occasionally
changing "obtain" to "get." 

	>Do you feel it would help/harm your performance?

I don't feel that it has had any significant on my productivity either way.
I don't think it has drastically changed the clarity of my writing. On the
other hand, many of the boilerplate safety admonitions I use are much
clearer in Simplified English than they are in standard English.

	>What do you think the cost/benefits are to your
	>audience?

Now that's a little different. Our audience is international, typically not
college educated, and using our docs in flight line or engine shop
environments. English is their second language. If the use of SE helps
assure that they properly carried out the instructions, and this prevents an
engine from coming apart on a passenger airliner at 50,000 feet over the
mid-Atlantic, the customer sees quite a benefit. I don't think our customers
(even the U.S. customers) see any additional cost at all. I'd venture to say
that many of them aren't even aware that they're reading SE.

--Rick Lippincott
  Saugus, MA


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