A web page devoted to news and views on WordTask training courses and on good writing practices in general. FEEDBACK | PREVIOUS ISSUE | HOME PAGE INDEX OF ARTICLES | LIST OF WEBNOTES ISSUES August 2000 IN THIS ISSUE-- NEWS BRIEF | WORD PLAY | COURSE PROFILES | TIPS 'N TECHNIQUES Check out our public sessions! Register now! Seating is limited. NEWS BRIEF WordTask launches new course on writing business and technical requirements It's neither technical writing nor business writing, exclusively. The documenting of business or technical requirements is a hybrid activity. Our newest course, Documenting Business and Technical Requirements focuses on the unique characteristics and challenges of these documents. If you are a business analyst, an IT planner or systems architect, this course is for you. Based on the technical writing principles offered in our Writing Technical Information Effectively, the new course provides the tools and techniques for user needs analysis, for structuring requirements documents, and for writing clearly and efficiently. The course traces the writing process as it applies to determining the requirement from the perspective of the user. The process then allows the requirements writer to translate those user needs to the system designer's context. With this process, the writer can reduce the margin of error that often distorts the requirements from their original user context. To learn more about this specialized training product, contact us now! * * * New title for our Effective Writing for Technical Specialists One of our flagship courses has seen a name change. We hope that the new title, Writing Technical Information Effectively, will broaden the appeal of our most popular course to include writers of anything technical. With the growth in the popularity of this course, many customers have asked whether it is suitable for writers such as health professionals and economists--whose subject matter is indeed technical--but who are not "technical" specialists in the sense that engineers and scientists are. The answer is a resounding yes, and we feel the new title speaks to these writers of technical content. The course itself remains the same, subject to the same update track. WORD PLAY In our seventh installment, we list some very common Latin abbreviations, whose time for retirement from formal business writing has come! We suggest erasing some of these from your prose because they tend to result in awkward parenthetical constructions that strangle otherwise healthy sentences. Others are simply archaic or lazy. For the other installments of Word Play, please refer to previous issues of webNOTES. i.e. (id est) To avoid stricking words in parentheses, use its English equivalent, "that is." The use of the English phrase also avoids the confusion between this abbreviation and "e.g.," discussed below. e.g. (exempli gratia) The same advice applies here as in the above. Squeezing examples into parenthetical statements with this abbreviation impedes the flow of the sentence. It can also deprive the example of the attention it would better receive when cited in a sentence of its own. etc. (and the rest) This abbreviation is far too general to assist most readers. When making lists, avoid "etc." as the last item. Instead use a more specific item that at least summarizes the category of elements. Example The following devices can be used on this type of telephone line: digital telephone set personal computer digital fax machine other digital consumer devices COURSE PROFILES THESE ARE ONLY THREE OF OUR MORE THAN 15 WRITING PROGRAMS TO CHOOSE FROM THE EDITOR'S TOOLKIT (2 days) Where in the writing process, aside from the revision phase, the editor should get involved, along with the essentials of accurate and effective editing. PROPOSALS WITH THE COMPEITIVE EDGE (2 days) The writing process applied to the unique strategies for winning proposals, including techniques for assessing the competitive elements of your product or service. TAKING EFFECTIVE MINUTES (1 day) Invaluable tips and techniques for improving your meeting minutes and your minute-taking skills--what to do before, during, and after the meeting. TIPS 'N TECHNIQUES Six ways to write more clearly and powerfully Sometimes the oldest advice is the best. This month, we provide guidelines from George Orwell, the author of literary classics 1984 and Animal Farm. Published in 1946, George Orwell's influential essay, "Politics and the English Language," offers writers some simple tips that have stood the test of time. College professors of English still endorse Orwell's observations about good writing and bad. To improve your writing, follow these six pieces of Orwellian advice: Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never us a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. 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