Need your opinions re simplified English (Can I quote you?)?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Robert Brown wonders: <<Do any of you have an opinion about using Simplified
or Controlled English?>>

What specifically are you trying to achieve, and how are you defining the
two terms? In responding to your questions, I'll choose a somewhat
simplistic and restrictive definition for both: cutting down the vast scope
of the English language by using broadly familiar words rather than less
familiar or more complex synonyms, using each word in one single way as much
as possible, and using only one word for each concept as much as possible.

In that context, both let you try to avoid translating your work (or avoid
the enormous cost and complexity of localizing your writing for many
different languages and cultures). That works if you can reasonably assume
that your foreign readers have or can attain basic English proficiency.
Thus, one of the original purposes of both simplified and controlled English
was to produce a single set of technical maintenance manuals that could be
used worldwide (I believe by Caterpillar).

The approach worked about as well as you might expect: not as well as true
localization, but well enough to be a better alternative than simply
distributing unmodified English documentation. STC has published a number of
articles on this in _Technical Communication_; head over to their online
archives (www.techcomm-online.org) to see if you can turn up the articles.

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

There are both positive and negative impacts. The obvious negative is that
in a rigorously controlled environment, I'm robbed of the flexibility to
make audience-appropriate choices that contradict an often-inflexible word
list. On the plus side, assuming I know better than those who developed the
word list isn't always a good assumption, and once I learn the vocabulary, I
can use it quickly and efficiently to produce writing that I know will
communicate well with the audience.

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

If there's a measure of flexibility in the system, it can be a great help.
For example, using consistent wording in my employer's reports makes it much
easier for me to translate the French texts into English; I know that once
I've edited the French to use the same technical terms we used in previous
reports, the readers will understand both the French (they have already
learned these words) and the English (I know how to translate each term each
time). Where the system is applied inflexibly, it can greatly interfere with
my work when it forces me to spend considerable effort working around the
word restrictions to communicate clearly.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada 
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html
"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."--Goethe


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