Hebrew Isn't All Bad
/As a naive new immigrant, I would say to people “How are you?” in Hebrew, translating literally. They looked back at me as if I had asked “Why are you?”
Read MoreSpace Resurgent
/The screen of the 1970s gave us 24 lines of 80 characters each, which continued to encourage compressing the message. Only recently have we started to see high resolution, big screens, and with them a re-emergence of white space.
Read MoreWords That Want Too Much (2)
/A fable: In its youth, the word However was just another member of the Ever family, like Wherever and Whoever and Whichever. They all had simple meanings.
Read MoreWords That Want Too Much (1)
/When I was young, and English was English, or at least it was American, “multiple” meant only one thing.
Read MoreHeroism and Minimalism
/I suppose it’s unusual for a technical-writing department to have a slogan, but when I worked at Daisy Systems the department had a slogan: “The user is the hero.”
Read MoreIs it an If or a Lest?
/Here’s an expression to drive you crazy: “in case.” “Just in case there’s a fire, we keep a bucket of sand handy.” We keep the sand handy whether there’s a fire or not, because some day there might be one.
Read MoreWhen Not to Be Interesting
/Some writers labor to keep their sentences uncluttered but clutter their examples with items that are distracting or even dangerous. If an example calls for a list of usernames, they’ll list their favorite basketball players or favorite fictional characters. But your favorite basketball player sells his name for use on sport socks for millions of dollars.
Read MoreThis and That
/The old preacher’s advice goes, “Tell them what you’re gonnatell them, then tell them, and then tell them what you told them.”
Read MoreOpening
/When you start reading the TiePlumb User Guide, be it a booklet or a help system, what should the first sentence say to you? I’ve seen some first sentences that say “Welcome,” I’ve seen “Thank you,” and I’ve even seen “Congratulations.” “Welcome” is supposed to sound friendly, but to me it sounds arrogant and inaccurate. It says, “You are in our territory now. We are the proprietors and you are the disoriented stranger.” Wrong message.
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