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Subject:Re: Controlled English From:Larissa Neumann <neumannl -at- DSCLTD -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 20 May 1998 17:13:20 -0400
Sounds interesting. Does anybody out there actually use controlled
English in their writing? Does it help? How do you do it?
Is software available that can check your work for compliance with
Controlled English?
I did search the internet and found one program, which is basically a
dictionary of allowed and forbidden words. (The software is called
Author's Structured Simplified English Tool (ASSET)).
Larissa Neumann
Publications Department
DSC Ltd.
As I understand it, Controlled or Simplified English (are they
the
same?) means slightly more than just a cut-down set of words
without
ambiguous terms.
There is a basic vocabulary of general English. I think it's
typically
300 - 600 words. There is also usually an additional technical
dictionary, containing words that may be anything but simple,
but
which are required for the tasks being described.
<snip>
And they are completely free to think bad thoughts about us
clumsy
technical writers and translators if we fail to provide them
with
good, clear instructions.
Regards
---
Stuart Burnfield
Ministry of Documentation
Functional Software Pty Ltd mailto:slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au
