"shorthand" vs. plain writing style

[VERKERKEN Wouter]

Hi Yves,

I'm with Andrew on this one, both as a tech writer and as a reader
("whose first language isn't English"). Nasty, those gerunds.

Regards,
Wouter


>Yves Barbion wrote:
>
>> I'm doing some research on car repair manuals. A typical 
>writing style
>> here seems to be some sort of "shorthand" English, in which articles
>> and pronouns are omitted. For example:  
>> 
>> - "Remove fuel tank cover."
>> - "Drain fuel tank and clean fuel filler neck and surrounding area."
>> - "Unscrew securing bolt and remove tank flap unit with rubber cup."
>> - "Remove securing bolts on filler neck."
>> - "Ensure fuel hoses are tight."
>> 
>> Any thoughts/opinions about this writing style? Pros and cons? Where
>> does this writing style come from? Effect on the readability and
>> translatability of the text?
>
>Yves:
>
>Removal of articles and prepositions is a false economy; instructions
>written this way take longer to read and parse than 
>instructions written
>in real English.
>
>For people whose first language isn't English, this style can be
>exceedingly hard to understand, mostly because the lack of articles and
>prepositions makes it difficult to determine parts of speech:
>
>    "Remove fuel tank cover": Does that mean "remove the fuel tank and
>    cover it"?  Remove the fuel, the tank, AND the cover?
>
>    "Drain fuel tank and clean fuel filler neck and surrounding area":
>    Am I to drain the fuel tank, the clean fuel filler neck, AND the
>    surrounding area?
>
>    "Unscrew securing bolt": Unscrew it WHILE securing it?  How?
>
>    "Remove tank flap unit with rubber cup": Am I being instructed to
>    use a rubber cup instead of a prybar?  Or to remove this unit but
>    leave installed the unit that doesn't have a rubber cup?
>
>This problem was identified decades ago by the aerospace industry; they
>addressed it with "Simplified Technical English": a dictionary and set
>of rules for writing aircraft maintenance manuals.  Info on the spec
>(which is available for a fee) is here:
>
>    http://www.simplifiedenglish-aecma.org/
>
>and there's an out-of-date, unofficial version of the spec here:
>
>    http://www.userlab.com/Downloads/SE.pdf
>
>-Andrew
>
>=== Andrew Warren  - awarren at synaptics.com
>=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA

>