Manuals Written in Non-American English

Subject: Manuals Written in Non-American English
From: Chris Hamilton <chamilton -at- GR -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 16:53:19 -0500

Soon I'm going to be trying to impose some changes in my company's
documentation standards. Although it's not our dominant market, we do
have Non-American users who use our manuals. My boss's boss is from
Great Britian and has very specific language requirements so our manuals
speak to an international (albeit English-speaking) clientelle. I want
to be fully informed when I try to get these changes made, so...

Outside the United States, is second person used frequently in user
documentation?

What things are generally done in manuals written for the USA that don't
work well for non-American English speakers? (Aside from the normal,
generally-accepted conventions for user documentation, if such things
exist.)

The second question is, I admit, vague. But I've never seen
documentation obviously intended for non-American English speakers.

I know several regular contributors hail from across a pond. Any
insights from them or anyone else would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

--
Chris Hamilton, Technical Writer
Greenbrier and Russel
chamilton -at- gr -dot- com
847.330.4146
-----------------------------
From way downtown, !

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