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.
Thanks for the many public and private responses to my question.
I like Bonnie's suggestions "and therefore" and "and thus" a lot, partly
because it removes the comma and gives a nice flow to the sentence. But all
credit goes to the word 'and' in those suggestions, as "therefore" and
especially "thus" has a similar old-English Shakespeare sound to it like
"hence" . And I'm not particularly looking for suggestions for when to
replace a comma with 'and'. Although all suggestions are welcome. :)
Thanks also for the other alternatives suggested by others, even for the
spelling corrections in my message. Forgive me for not making the same
spelling and grammar efforts for my email messages and posts. ;)
I think I'm going to go with Heidi's suggestion and use 'so' more often,
considering the audience, which as I mentioned in my initial message, is
very divers. And partly in response to a private reply: I haven't
'researched' the audience because I know it already. (I'm betting someone
feels the urge to respond to that ;)). The articles are for a website about
fixing and tuning cars by yourself, not just restoring expensive old-timers.
So the audience ranges from 16-year-old kids to pensioned brain surgeons.
Additionally, it will have an international audience, which is one of the
main reasons for asking the question. I like the word 'hence', but I can
imagine that for many people in the audience it is too sophisticated etc.
I own the site, so I don't have an editor (now that's certainly going to get
a response). I'm creating this site because I knew jack about cars 2 weeks
ago, and don't want to get ripped off by car dealers anymore. ;) Plus I want
to make some 'changes' on my own car. So, the site gives me an excuse to dig
into it 'and' practice writing in other areas than IT certifications. I'm
sure an editor could make plenty of improvements, and 'if' I get any
commercial plans with it I'll probably get one too.
Also forgive me for not giving individual responses to the answers that had
more to do with the subject than the word "hence". It is just a single
sentence from an entire paragraph about how much paint one would need, and
from a 1500-words article. I don't want to sound touchy because I took no
offense or whatsoever, but of course one needs more information than just
that one sentence. Nevertheless, here's the entire paragraph (first draft!):
"When you found the matching paint, you will need to determine how much
paint you need. Generally, you will need more paint than you would expect,
especially when using spray cans. Using too little paint will also result in
a color difference, even if you did find a perfect match. For lighter
colors, you will usually need more layers of paint, hence more paint cans.
On average, you will need 3 to 5 layers of paint to get the color right, and
depending on the size of the body part you are painting, a single can will
hardly be enough to cover just a single layer. Try to buy sufficient paint
at once, so the cans will be from the same batch or custom mix."
Did I already mention I'm partly doing this for practice? ;) That includes
expanding my vocabulary on non-IT jargon. A 'can of paint', I'm referring to
"spray cans". I'm not sure that's correct either, but I'll be able to solve
any translation issue in terminology during research and fact checking. Hey,
I don't want to bother you with translation issues.
Again, I very much appreciate all the replies I received!
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.5/300 - Release Date: 4/3/2006
WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today!. http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
