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Subject:RE: In order to - and localization? From:"Diana Ost" <Diana -dot- Ost -at- msmcorp -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 22 May 2006 13:08:39 -0400
Well I looked it up :-) I used Marlana Coe's Human Factors book, Writing
for Other Cultures chapter for a reference when I did my work for
translation.
There are probably newer books out with more recent research, I don't
know.
She did point out that some cultures don't like the imperative voice
(Put the disk in the drive) but rather a softer approach (the disk
should be in the drive).
Notice though, that the sentence structure is still "direct" rather than
"inverted," which seems to be the main concern. That means active voice,
with a verb-noun-object construction. If that makes sense. If you have
good translators (people, not machine translation), they can handle most
sentences if there are one-to-one ideas to sentences that are simply
constructed. Most technical writers have no problem with this, as we
write this way anyway. :-)
That translation project changed my writing. I stopped using "To do
this, do that" form and started using the direct form "Select the
whatever to "do this."
That's just my experience. I am interested in what other experiences are
out there. I think the main thing is to work with your translators to
make sure they get what they need. :-)
Diana Ost
Technical Writer/Reporting Analyst
Production Administration
Market Street Mortgage Corporation
diana -dot- ost -at- msmcorp -dot- com
Phone (727) 431-7209
Fax (727) 724-9096
2650 McCormick Drive, Suite 200
Clearwater, Florida 33759
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-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+diana -dot- ost=msmcorp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+diana -dot- ost=msmcorp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Geoff Hart
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 12:56 PM
To: TECHWR-L; Mary Dulin
Subject: In order to - and localization?
Mary Dulin wondered: <<I was taught that using the phrase "in order to"
in technical communication is bad, i.e., imprecise, wordy, unnecessary,
and especially bad form when documents are to be translated. A co-worker
was taught just the opposite - that especially in documents that will be
translated, "in order to" is preferred, as the meaning comes across
better when instructions are translated.>>
As in all rules of thumb, it pays to remember another rule of thumb
<g>: even when the rule works for the majority of cases, it generally
has numerous exceptions. In general, you should never apply such rules
if you don't understand why they work--and thus, when and where they do
not work.
Here, the distinction depends on where the phrase occurs within a
sentence. At the start of a sentence, "To X" provides the context
clearly and in the minimum number of words. That makes "in order to"
two words longer than necessary.
However, in the middle of a sentence, "in order to" sometimes provides
that small extra clue that avoids confusion. This is most common in a
sentence that already has many other "to" clauses. "To get to Toronto to
attend the meeting, it's important to head west on the 401 from
Montreal, not east, in order to ensure that you're driving in the right
direction." Yes, that's a bad sentence, and rewriting would help. It's
only provided to illustrate the specific point rasied by Mary; I
regularly encounter examples where "in order to" or "so as to" provides
necessary clarification, but I'm failing to retrieve them right now.
Time for more coffee!
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