Tom,
Thanks for your comments. I'll read them more fully tomorrow, but at first
review these are excellent references for the final Objective reviewers
and authors who get the happy task of reviewing and cleaning up our
objectives, and conforming them to a set guideline (which messages such as
this are helping to define).
Attacking ambiguity is definitely a goal for our Level 2 objectives, and
the existance of ambiguity in the current preliminary objectives was
partially intentional, and nevertheless expected.
However, fwiw, your notes regarding slang and such were mildly suprising,
or at least confusing in some cases, because my interpretation was the
same as yours, and not of any of the possible confusions. However, the
punctuation problems are mainly from going back and adding, taking away,
etc as I was not addressing issues of proper form when trying to write
them. I am a bad comma splicer though. Thankfully, one of our attending
item writers is the product of an English teacher and is quite picky on
such things :)
-Kara
On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Tom Peters wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Jun 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > First, thanks for the starting feedback on the current posted objectives.
> > Please, keep it coming!
> >
> > Here's a stab at preliminary objectives for hardware tasks. Please
> > review, comment, or rip apart as previously requested :)
>
> Some general comments, with examples:
>
>
> * Please carefully define which acronyms the LPIC should know, and
> spell out any others. Also acronyms must be unambiguous, so the LPI
> objectives and tests may not contain any acronym that has more than
> one meaning. I have been maintaining an official LPI glossary that Alan
> once started, it is at:
> http://www.lpi.org/p-glossary.html
>
> e.g. (is LVM a household world among Linux sysadmins?):
> [4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.6.3, 4.11.1, 4.11.2, 4.11.3
> Obj : Software and kernel configuration for hardware
> Configure kernel options to support various hardware, including
> UDMA66 drives and IDE CD-Burners. Use LVM to manage hard disk drives
> and partitions and software tools to interact with hard disk settings.
> Includes tools and files such as:
> * hdparm
> * tune2fs
> * /proc/interrupts
>
>
>
> * Be VERY careful with your language, do not use colloquialisms and
> slang. Someone who is not fluent in English must be able to figure out
> the meaning of the objective with the help of a dictionary (be it a
> special one on technical English).
>
> e.g.:
>
> - "Configure Linux installation": What is "installation"? Most properly,
> it is the act of installing. So you ask to do something about the
> installation procedure itself, presumably when creating the installation
> CD of a Linux distribution. So the phrase may be interpreted to mean
> things like: "Create the default configuration of a Linux system for the
> installation CD of a Linux distribution", or "Create configuration tools
> for the installation CD of a Linux distribution" or "Create the default
> settings of the installation procedure for a Linux distribution" - all of
> which are quite unlike what you mean.
> I guess by "installation" you mean: "that which has been installed",
> i.e. a Linux system; but this is a more colloquial use of the word.
> Such terse (3-words!) colloquial formulas can only be understood
> when expanded, which may be done in any number of different ways.
> I think in this case you mean to say something like "Be able to
> configure a Linux system to include ..." or "Be able to configure a Linux
> system during installation to ...".
>
> - "Configure Linux ... configuration" is a tautology and has no specific
> meaning.
>
> - "autodetect" is hardly a well-known verb, and it may have different
> interpretations. In this case, I suggest a more elaborate formulation,
> like: "Be able to configure the system to automatically detect PCMCIA
> devices, such as network cards."
>
> - Finally, if there is nothing to list among the examples, it is better to
> leave out the bulleted list. Otherwise people may think they are missing
> something.
>
> [4.8.1, 4.8.2
> Obj : Configuring PCMCIA devices
> Configure Linux installation and configuration to include PCMCIA
> support. Configure PCMCIA devices, such as network cards, to
> autodetect.
> Includes tools and files such as:
> *
>
>
>
> * Be very careful with interpunction (',', and also ';', ':', and
> '.') and conjunction ("and"). In a comma-separated list, the items are
> separated by comma's, so words conjugated by "and" belong together in the
> same item. This is a lawyer's finesse, but it has been causing
> ambiguities and mis-interpretations in our Level 1 objectives.
>
> e.g.: "multi-port serial cards and LCD panels" are apples and cows thrown
> into the same basket in the text below; it should read "multi-port
> serial cards, and LCD panels":
>
> [4.2.1, 4.3.2, 4.3.3, 4.4.5
> Obj : Adding New Hardware
> Configure internal and external hardware devices for a system,
> including new hard disks, dumb terminal devices, serial UPS devices,
> multi-port serial cards and LCD panels.
> Includes tools and files such as:
> * XFree86
> *
>
> --
> Tom Peters
> Director of the Board & Exam Development Specialist,
> Linux Professional Institute
> e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> --
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>
--
Kara Pritchard Phone: 618-398-7320
Kara Pritchard Phone: 618-398-7360
Author, RHCE Exam Cram
Linux Users of Central Illinois http://www.luci.org/
Director of Exam Development http://www.lpi.org/
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