Re: "Appears" vs. "will appear"

["Bryan Sherman" <bsherm -at- gmail -dot- com>]

So once again the two keys are:
- It Depends
- Know your audience

I do a lot of work for a multi-national corporation. Folks are
expected to understand English, most are VERY well educated, but
English is their second language. I frankly hadn't realized that
displays could cause a problem. It 'appears' I have another reason to
continue writing as I have,,, :-)

Obviously for some folks that would not be an issue. It's always good
to be reminded to know your audience. One "size fits all" does not
work any better for tech writing than baseball hats... :-)

On 5/3/07, Mike Starr <mikestarr-techwr-l -at- writestarr -dot- com> wrote:
> Sorry... I don't buy that one. Does that mean I need to ratchet back the
> reading level of all of my documentation? Someone who's in the process of
> learning the language can probably misinterpret 60% of the terminology in a
> technical manual. I consider my audience to be generally educated
> non-specialists and write accordingly.
>
> Mike
> --
> Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
> Technical Writer   -   Online Help Developer   -    Website developer
> Graphic Designer    -    Desktop Publisher   -       MS Office Expert
> Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax:(262) 697-6334
> Email: mike -at- writestarr -dot- com      -      Web: http://www.writestarr.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Janice Gelb" <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com>
> To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 6:03 PM
> Subject: Re: "Appears" vs. "will appear"
>
> > Mike Starr wrote:
> >> I'd suggest if your localization vendor has a problem with the common
> >> usage of a term, it's time to seek a more qualified localization vendor.
> >> If you were using machine translation, I could understand adopting a
> >> "single use for all terms" approach but real translators ought to be
> >> able to read a sentence and understand easily from context that I'm not
> >> talking about LCD or CRT displays. As far as I'm concerned, any
> >> translator who expresses difficulty with something as easy as this is
> >> incompetent.
> >>
> >
> > We take all localization objections as applying
> > not only to translators but also people reading
> > our documentation who have English as a second
> > language. If it's a red flag for the translators,
> > it's probably potentially going to confuse ESL
> > readers as well.
> >
> > -- Janice
> >
> > ***********************************************************
> > Janice Gelb          | The only connection Sun has with
> > janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com  | this message is the return address
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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