Re: Gerunds in titles and headings

[Bill Burns <BillDB -at- ILE -dot- COM>]

Richard writes:

> I have been told that gerunds can be difficult to translate into several
> languages as they do not have a similar construction.  That said, the
> project I'm now working with uses gerunds freely.
>
My understanding is that translators don't typically care about the
construction of the source to this degree, as long as the meaning is clear.
They translate the meaning of the sentence (or segment), not the words. That
said, I'll also add that other cultures have different conventions for
headings, so they may translate headings differently anyway. For example, we
might write the following heading for a help topic:

        Creating a User Profile

The German for the same heading, when translated back, might be something
like

        This is how to create a user profile.

But back to the original topic. Using gerunds in headings and titles is a
common convention for English, and I tend to follow it. I have seen
imperative used for headings, but not very often. I think I may have seen
something in an instructional technology text that suggested using
imperative mood because it's "more active" and somehow more task oriented,
but I don't buy it. I don't think most readers would expect "Create a user
profile" and "Creating a user profile" to be two different topics.  In a
book's table of contents, headings in imperative mood would also probably
set up some nonparallel entries.

As I general rule, I don't see using imperative mood in a heading as a
useful convention. In some cases, it may be preferable, but I'd otherwise
avoid it.

Bill  Burns - Eccentric Technology Consultant
ILE Communications Group
billdb -at- ile -dot- com
Call me fishmeal.


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