TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: His/Her v. Their From:Wanda Phillips <wetcoastwriter -at- me -dot- com> To:Becca <becca -at- di -dot- org> Date:Sat, 27 Oct 2012 02:02:16 -0400
Becca,
Out of curiosity, are these documents translated?
Since the style guide I worked with when documenting products distributed internationally, or in some earlier cases in my career just in Canada, I had to be conscious of the effect my choices had on the localization of the content. So, has anyone encountered translation issues where the choice to use any of the "she/he" combinations or "their" in place of the "he/she" for third party actors?
I do, by the way, applaud your decision to take things in small steps. While we're often anxious or at least intent on achieving a state of perfection in our work, we can sometimes trigger an avalanche but rushing towards the finish line.
Wanda
------------------
...in order to understand the true nature of reality, we must realize that nothing ever really happens.
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Rinpoche, Sun of Wisdom (Shambhala Publications), 3-4.
------------------
On 2012-10-26, at 10:08 AM, Becca <becca_price -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> Some documents I'm editing of necessity give procedures in third person rather than the assumed (you) second person. There's no way around this.
>
> In the document I'm editing, they use His/Her. My inclination is to use "their" - comments?
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Becca
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Writer Tip: You have more time to author content with Doc-To-Help, because your project can be up and running in 3 steps.
>
> See the “Getting Started with Doc-To-Help” blog post. http://bit.ly/doc-to-help-3-steps
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as wetcoastwriter -at- me -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Writer Tip: You have more time to author content with Doc-To-Help, because your project can be up and running in 3 steps.
See the “Getting Started with Doc-To-Help” blog post. http://bit.ly/doc-to-help-3-steps
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
