TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 16:16:11 -0400, Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> wrote:
>
> Christine Pellar-Kosbar wondered: <<I'm trying to make a US English
> manual as easy-to-read as possible for a UK audience. I've checked
> spelling and grammar, converted units to metric, converted paper sizes
> to European, and made sure dates/times are in the appropriate format.
> Can you think of anything else I might want to do?>>
>
> If you're not British yourself, or haven't immersed yourself so deeply
> in British culture that you automatically think in British, you'd be
> well-advised to hire someone typical (i.e., British) from your audience
> to provide a rigorous reality check on your efforts. All your hard work
> will be repaid by a much easier time for that person, and thus a lower
> editing cost, but this isn't a step you should really try to skip.
> Though most international audiences have learned to cope with the
> idiosyncracies of American English, it's a kindness to your audience to
> fully localize documents where this is possible.
Throw in something about footy, bitter, and lard butties, sprinkle
some U's and UE's, make 51% of the document passive, and you're good
to go. Just kidding. American technical writing is readable by British
audiences, no real worries (it's a little forthright, but c'est la
vie). For software, get a British software technical writer to review
your work, not just any old British editor ... seriously, outsource. I
did one job from America for an Irish company OEMing a Russian
software product, I never met or talked to anyone, it was all
Internet. Ain't the Web grand!
======
T.
Remember, this is online. Take everything with a mine of salt and a grin.
ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl
WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
