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Subject:Re: Writing British English From:"Wayne J. Douglass" <wayned -at- VERITY -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 8 Nov 1996 09:00:32 -0800
At 08:21 PM 11/7/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Tech Writers
>I am a writer in an international software company. We produce documetation in
>about 15-17 different languages for our products. We recently added Bristish
>English as a new language. We hired a new writer in our office over the
>Atlantic specifically for this purpose. When I got a copy of the first manual
>that this writer produced I tried very hard to find major differences in the
>writing. The only real thing that I found were several spelling differences. I
>also found that the writing style was not as clear and consise as I try to make
>mine.
Except for spelling I don't see a need for two flavours of the same manual
in English. I am assuming that an international software company already is
sensitive to cultural differences and the attendant vocabulary changes (boot
and vest, to choose some trivial examples of English words that can mean
something else entirely in the UK) and has cleansed its prose accordingly.
--Wayne Douglass
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Verity, Inc. Email: wayned -at- verity -dot- com
894 Ross Drive Telephone: 408-542-2139
Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Facsimile: 408-542-2040
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