Hello Andrew, All
In ODF Authors site, you can get the writing style guide in
Home / LibreOffice / English / Resources for Contributors / Ch5 Style
Guide
I think it worth to all authors to follow it.
Exerpt:
Writing style
The following list summarizes our preferred writing style. Some of these
points are discussed in more detail in the tips for writers, reviews,
and editors starting on page 6.
* Use short, simple, easy-to-understand words and sentences. Be concise
and clear.
* Write in active voice, using passive voice only when necessary or
appropriate. A case of appropriate passive voice is when the focus of
the sentence is on the receiver of an action whose doer is obvious or is
not important. For example, The File dialog box is displayed is OK.
* Use the present tense, using future tense only when necessary or
appropriate. Try to make your descriptions timeless. For example, write
The File dialog box is displayed, rather than The File dialog box will
be displayed. Use future tense only when one event is necessarily later
than another. For example, If you use styles, your documents will be
easier to maintain.
* Avoid over-using you. For example, instead of saying if you want to
have table headers repeat on a new page, you need to do yyy, say to have
table headers repeat..., do yyy.
* When appropriate (as in instructions), use the imperative mood. For
example, instead of you should not use slang, say do not use slang.
* In circumstances where the only alternative to you is the passive
voice, use you. For example, instead of in this window xxx can be done,
say in this window you can do xxx.
* Use gender-neutral language, but don’t use awkward phrases like he or
she to do so. See page 8 for some examples.
Variations of English
For consistency, when writing the user guides we are following US
English spelling conventions and UK English punctuation conventions.
See also “Punctuation” on page 6.
You can use other spelling or punctuation conventions when writing other
documents.
Regards
Olivier
Em 07/04/2016 12:43, Andrew Wetmore escreveu:
> I am also uncomfortable with the change from active to passive voice.
> Passive voice is harder to read and to understand, expecially for those for
> whom English is not the first language.
>
> On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 11:00 AM, Andrew Wetmore <cottag...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I said this to Oliver directly, forgetting to "reply all":
>>
>> I don't think it's a good idea to move away from immediacy ("you") to a
>> more remote tone ("the user"). This goes contrary to current trends in
>> documentation.
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 10:45 AM, Hazel Russman <hazeldeb...@googlemail.com
>>> wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 7 Apr 2016 10:59:01 -0300
>>> Olivier Hallot <olivier.hal...@libreoffice.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello
>>>>
>>>> In the last weeks I updated the first 4 chapters of the 5.0 Getting
>>>> Started book to the 5.1 version and placed them in the 5.1 Draft
>>>> folder for revision. The files are with Track changes enabled so it
>>>> will be easy to see the changes.
>>>>
>>>> The contents addition are moderately deep in details, bearing that
>>>> this is a Getting Started book.
>>>>
>>>> It will be important to revise the contents and the English and give a
>>>> feedbak on the job already done.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you in advance
>>>>
>>>>
>>> http://www.odfauthors.org/libreoffice/english/getting-started/draft-lo-5.1
>>>>
>>>> Note: The chapters are uploaded, if don't see them then there is an
>>>> issue on permissions I need to fix.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I've downloaded the preface. I'll have a look at it, mainly for English
>>> and style.
>>>
>>> --
>>> If any members of GCHQ are reading this, shame on you! I fought for
>>> your right to belong to a trade union and now you are taking away my
>>> right to privacy?
>>>
>>> H Russman
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Andrew Wetmore
>>
>> http://cottage14.blogspot.com/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
--
Olivier Hallot
Comunidade LibreOffice
http://ask.libreoffice.org/pt-br
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