RE: Department of Redundancy Department

[Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

A perfect example of the fact that when you open a can of worms, the only way to stabilize the situation again is to use a bigger can.


--- On Thu, 7/10/08, technical writing plus <doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net> wrote:

> From: technical writing plus <doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net>
> Subject: RE: Department of Redundancy Department
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Date: Thursday, July 10, 2008, 3:16 PM
> I'm sure that you have cleaned it up better that I
> could. But still, I'm
> going to give you a glimpse into my thought process as I
> attempt to edit
> such a thing. 
> 
> Right, technically speaking, the facts may have been
> correct but technically
> speaking there was too many of them and reading such text
> gives people
> headaches. 
> 
> If I say 'Just plug it in' -- then the problem is
> that the reader might not
> know what I'm talking about. 
> 
> It does looks like I ought to use 'autosampler' and
> 'power supply' and 'back
> panel'. So here is my first real attempt to rebuild
> that sentence. 
> 
> [First, use the correct power supply.] Plug the [correct]
> power supply into
> the jack that is on [at] the back panel of the autosampler
> unit. 
> 
> Jim Jones  	zxlat.translatorscafe.com
> 
> Technical Editing | Chinese, German, Spanish to English |
> Other
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> Sam Beard presented
> 
> ...revising a manual from before my time here, making some
> fairly
> minor edits. However, I ALWAYS review the manuals I'm
> revising here,
> reading them word for word, and I usually, if not always,
> catch some
> sort of error that wasn't in the set of redlines handed
> to me. Take this
> gem, for example:
> 
> Plug the external desktop power supply cord of the
> voltage-specific
> external desk-top power supply supplied with the
> autosampler into the
> power connector located on the autosampler back panel. 
> 
>    Now, this was step 1 of a four step process on plugging
> in an
> autosampler and connecting it to the main unit, in a
> section called
> Establishing External Connections. Right before this was a
> Warning and a
> Caution about using the supplied power supply. While not
> technically an
> error, isn't this a WONDERFUL example of technical
> writing?!
> 
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Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
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True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
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