Fwd: Six elementary rules for writing good english

["Raj Machhan" <raj -dot- machhan -at- gmail -dot- com>]

 Thank you all for turning this into a lively debate. After going through
the reponses, I am now in a much better position to remember these rules.
We often tend to give precedence to style over substance in our writing.
These rules, I think, are great help to stay focused.

Talking about some of the points Lauren has discussed:

Posting a link would have been a very convenient shortcut.  To begin with I
did just that: copied the link and pasted it in the mail. But then it struck
me that a link is not the best way to go about it. The probability of a link
getting lost or ignored is much higher compared to the actual text.
Readers prefer text over mysterious links. If the text is short and
manageable I guess it makes better sense to put it upfront.

I may have missed out something but the text reproduced from The
Economist does not contain "errors". I put the comma after "mind" beacuse
I thought that was the correct usage. However, going by the responses above
and a bit of research, I am still to form a definite opinion.

Raj





 The quote in Raj's post begins after the colon that follows "technical
communication."  Here is what the Economist has,
http://www.economist.com/research/styleGuide/index.cfm?page=673899.  But
some errors seem to have been introduced into the quote.  It might have been
better to just post the link to the original text instead.

Lauren



 On 8/7/07, Lauren <lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu> wrote:
>
> Hey Mark,
>
> I you are saying that you write scientific terms when you cannot think of
> an
> everyday English equivalent, then you are not contradicting the rule.  An
> everyday English equivalent that is not used by the audience of the
> document
> is not exactly an "equivalent" because it will not function as an equal
> term.  However, even scientific technical documents should be written for
> the everyday person with the appropriate scientific background to
> understand, so terms should be appropriately defined when they are used.
>
> Also, I think that in this case, Rule #5, "jargon" is getting the same
> treatment as colloquilism.  Although, there are certain terms that people
> use in everyday speech and informal writing, formal documentation needs
> use
> clear, non-casual terms and avoid the use of jargon or colloquialism.
>
> Lauren
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> > [mailto: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
> > Behalf Of Mark the Writer
> > Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 8:26 AM
> > To: 'techwr-l'
> > Subject: RE: Six elementary rules for writing good english
> >
> >
> > RE:  George Orwell ("Politics and the English Language", 1946)
> >
> > >From "The Economist"
> >
> > 5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon
> > word if you can
> > think of an everyday English equivalent.
> >
> > ******
> >
> > Find rule 5 hard to follow for technical writing.
> >
> > As an engineer myself - you use the scientific terms and
> > jargon that all of
> > the engineers use in person and in documents.
> >
> > Not some non-engineer equivalent.
> >
> > When the engineers see a technical document that does not use
> > established
> > technical wording - they have some very
> > choice things to say to me about the tech writers who do.
> >
> > Do not forget the other golden rule for technical or
> > non-technical documents
> > - write for the audience.
> >
> > Mark
> > mdbinc.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > No virus found in this outgoing message.
> > Checked by AVG.
> > Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.6/938 - Release
> > Date: 8/5/2007 4:16 PM
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