RE: [BULK] Re: On the value of glossaries containing terms the audience should already know

Subject: RE: [BULK] Re: On the value of glossaries containing terms the audience should already know
From: Mike McCallister <mike -dot- mccallister -at- pkware -dot- com>
To: Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>, "Elissa K. Miller" <emiller -at- doubleknot -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2013 19:54:27 +0000

...and depending on the context, IP can also be "intellectual property." I've been thrown by that when our CEO or marketing people toss it around. "Why do we want to protect our Internet Protocol? Is it broken?"

As always, never assume...

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mike -dot- mccallister=pkware -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mike -dot- mccallister=pkware -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Julie Stickler
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2013 1:45 PM
To: Elissa K. Miller
Cc: techwrl
Subject: [BULK] Re: On the value of glossaries containing terms the audience should already know
Importance: Low

If they EVER plan to translate their documentation, they will need that glossary to give to their localization vendors. If they want to start maintaining it now, don't talk them out of it.

Also, just because you know what an acronym means, never assume that your audience uses the same acronym to mean the same thing. "USB" gets 29 hits on acronymfinder.com, and SSH has 25.


On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 11:44 AM, Elissa K. Miller
<emiller -at- doubleknot -dot- com>wrote:

> Hi, all:
>
>
>
> So, I continue working on an administrative command line reference as
> a freelance gig for a client whose staff consists entirely of
> engineers-no in-house technical writers, trainers, or instructional
> designers of any kind.
>
>
>
> The original document that they created has a glossary that includes a
> section of industry terms and a section of company-specific terms.
> There are only five company-specific terms, and even though they're
> defined in the text of the manual, I can see the value of putting them
> in a glossary as well because you might go straight to the command you
> want to learn about and miss the text where it was defined. So, it's a
> weirdly short glossary, but fine.
>
>
>
> But, the industry terms in the glossary are bugging me-they're
> defining really basic terms like RFC, SSH, LDAP, DNS, and IP, and I
> don't think you have any business mucking around with *anything*
> covered in this guide if you don't know what DNS and IP mean.
>
>
>
> Any thoughts on whether it's worth it to argue that it's unnecessary
> and borderline insulting to tell sysops what USB means? (USB is an
> example where defining it doesn't even help-my elderly mother knows
> what a USB port does and how to plug things into it without knowing
> what the acronym stands for).
> Does this kind of glossary have any value other than the
> not-negligible value of "leaving it because the client thinks it's
> important?" This really isn't the hill upon which I wish to die in
> battle, so, "Shut up and format the glossary they gave you-no one is
> going to read the glossary anyway" is a reasonable response.
>
>
>
> Sorry to have such basic questions, but as I mentioned in my first
> round of basic questions (which included "duuuuh, what do I do with
> pages and pages of sample output?), this is a new world for me.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Elissa
>
>
>
>
>
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--
Julie Stickler
http://heratech.wordpress.com/
Blogging about Agile and technical writing


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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for authoring.

Learn more: http://bit.ly/ZeOZeQ

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You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
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Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives


Follow-Ups:

References:
On the value of glossaries containing terms the audience should already know: From: Elissa K. Miller
Re: On the value of glossaries containing terms the audience should already know: From: Julie Stickler

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