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Re: Translation: simplified English or controlled language (etc.)
Subject:Re: Translation: simplified English or controlled language (etc.) From:Glen Warner <gdwarner -at- ricochet -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 2 Jul 2001 05:18:43 -0700
susan larsson <slarsson -at- cnw -dot- com> wrote:
(*snip*)
> .... it seems to me that your company's money would be best spent
> on good tech writers and good translators, rather than yet another
> software program and the associated training.
On the one hand, Susan has a point. On the other ....
Simplified English is designed to ... well, make things simple for
an international audience. I believe the grade level is grade 6 or
thereabouts.
For instance, when discussing controls on a console of the Whiz-Bang 2000
you're documenting, you can't write "Press the red button to turn on the
power."
You have to say "Push."
These programs are designed to read through (say 'parse') your document,
flag anything that can be written in simplified English, and (hopefully)
make the appropriate suggestion.
As you can see from the example, using the word 'Press' probably for you
and I, is as natural as breathing.
However, if you have to conform to the Simplified English standard
("Breathe Different!", as Steve Jobs might say), a tool like this is
a necessity.
Discussing this dilemma with my former lead the other day, I suggested he
"roll his own" Simplified English Spell Checker.
We built a template to handle the ATA-100 format ... now all he'd have to
do would be to manually type all that into a form ... then write the
appropriate code to do the spell check.
It's a bit of a leap ... but I think he can do it.
(*snip*)
--gdw
> fwiw
> susan
"On one hand, I'm a cat-loving vegetarian who ought to care deeply about
the caribou or koala bears or bats or whatever they have in Alaska. On
the other hand, I live in California so I'd be willing to squeeze
school children to death if I thought some oil would come out."
--Anonymous DNRC Member Numba One
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