Hello, Sorry to butt in after being absent so long, but I'm worried about these proposed rules.
I agree with rules to keep sentences and paragraphs short, breaking up long sentences and paragraphs when possible. On the other hand, I'm uneasy about rules like Peter's (1) and (2) stipulating maximum numbers of words or sentences. If the numbers are intended as rules of thumb, they should be rewritten to reflect this. If they are meant to be hard limits, it's easy to imagine situations where following such a rule could make the result harder to understand. Second, I struggle to see how rules (3-5) would make translation easier, or whether this is a good reason to implement them. Regarding (4), if a translator's command of English is so poor that they cannot understand common contractions, it seems doubtful that using one-to-one replacements would make all the difference. Regarding (5), if anything I think Latin abbreviations should be avoided for the sake of readers of the English version, for maximum accessibility. It appears from the wiki history that this provision was already in the style guide. Finally, regarding (3), genitive possessives are such a basic component of English grammar that I worry that circumlocutions would harm readability to an unacceptable degree, even if this improves ease of translation. No examples are given, so I don't know what is intended. There are examples of cases to avoid possessive pronouns already in the style guide, but these are not contexts in which a full noun (phrase) would be used. I think I understand the background that Peter is coming from, but I think this issue requires more discussion. --Kenneth On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 6:59 AM Peter Schofield <psaut...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello Olivier > > Definitely no objections from me. Hopefully, we will then get a standard > English appearing across all the guides. > > Regards > Peter Schofield > psaut...@gmail.com > > > > > On 27 Mar 2020, at 12:32, Olivier Hallot <olivier.hal...@libreoffice.org> > wrote: > > > > Hello All > > > > If no objection rises, I'll merge the suggestions in the wiki page. > > > > Kind regards > > Olivier > > > > Em 27/03/2020 07:28, Peter Schofield escreveu: > >> Hello Ilmari > >> > >> The Style Guide does not cover all my suggestions, mainly use of > apostrophe and word contractions. These two items do cause problems when > translating English. > >> My ideas about paragraphs and sentences are similar to the Style Guide, > but I have put a number in the requirement. This does help if writers > follow the suggestion. > >> Regards > >> Peter Schofield > >> psaut...@gmail.com > >> > >> > >> > >>> On 27 Mar 2020, at 10:11, Ilmari Lauhakangas < > ilmari.lauhakan...@libreoffice.org> wrote: > >>> > >>> Peter Schofield kirjoitti 27.3.2020 klo 10.23: > >>>> After going through the meeting notes (which I could not attend), I > though that it maybe a good idea to air my views about writing standards. > >>>> The following ideas come from my experience in working within > Simplified English rules when I worked for Airbus and Ericcson. > >>>> 1. Paragraphs no more the six sentences long. > >>>> 2. Sentences should only contain a maximum of 20 words, with the > occasional sentence allowed to be 25 words. > >>>> 3. Never use the possessive apostrophe (for example Peter’s). Rewrite > the sentence to remove the need for a possessive apostrophe. > >>>> 4. Never use contractions of words (for example: don’t becomes do > not; won’t becomes will not, and so on) > >>>> 5. Never use Latin abbreviations (for example: etc becomes and so on; > e.g. becomes for example; i.e. becomes that is). > >>>> There are many more rules, but the above basic rules are a good > start. They are designed to make English text easier to translate into > other languages and that is why it is called Simplified English. > >>>> Please let me know your opinion. > >>> > >>> There is a style guide in the wiki: > https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/DocumentationTeamInfo/StyleGuide > >>> > >>> Ilmari > >>> > >>> -- > >>> To unsubscribe e-mail to: > documentation+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org > >>> Problems? > https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ > >>> Posting guidelines + more: > https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > >>> List archive: > https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/documentation/ > >>> Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy > >> > >> > > > > -- > > Olivier Hallot > > LibreOffice Documentation Coordinator > > Comunidade LibreOffice > > Rio de Janeiro - Brasil - Local Time: UTC-03:00 > > http://tdf.io/joinus > > > > -- > > To unsubscribe e-mail to: > documentation+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org > > Problems? > https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ > > Posting guidelines + more: > https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > > List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/documentation/ > > Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy > > > -- > To unsubscribe e-mail to: documentation+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org > Problems? > https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ > Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/documentation/ > Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy > -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: documentation+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/documentation/ Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy
