Sharp Words

Oh dear. This story illustrates the benefit of proof-reading in all languages when producing multi-lingual work…

Out-of-office reply ends up on road sign

[In other news, NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow - seeing as I'm going out to see the Halloween carnival in Derry and then to a party, I will still be awake at midnight and I fully intend to try and write something before I go to sleep (probably a few hours after midnight). Whether my handwriting will be legible when I wake up is another matter.]

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Write for the right audience is (or should be) one of the golden rules of any type of writing. For example, if you’re writing a novel for children, don’t bog the story down in too much flowery description; if you’re preparing a pamphlet listing rubbish bin collections, keep timetables and lists simple enough for people of any level of education to understand.

This simple rule can be broken down even further for technical writers.

1. Know the level of your audience.
Are you writing a manual for novice users? Are you writing one for system administrators or developers who will probably know the technical concepts better than you do? Are you writing for an academic journal where complex terms will be fully understood by readers?

Make sure you use the right level of language for your readers, and try to avoid either confusing or patronising them. If you have multiple levels of readers, you can pitch your document somewhere in the middle, but don’t forget to explain things for those with lower levels of prior knowledge.

2. Explain unfamiliar concepts.
This ties into the previous point. For someone who has never used a computer before, include a diagram which names each part of a window, for example. Don’t assume that they will know how to click a button - explain it!

Do likewise with other terms and concepts that may be unfamiliar - it’s better to explain it than to leave someone floundering. People who know what it means can skip it.

This is where glossaries and appendices of reference material can be really useful, but don’t force readers to have to go looking in the glossary fifteen times a page.

And always remember to spell out acronyms, initials and other abbreviations the first time they are used!

3. Don’t over-complicate.
Don’t use clever-sounding language for the sake of it. It doesn’t add anything to your writing, and can be confusing - and difficult to translate! There’s no need to write ‘There is no possibility that you can’ when ‘You cannot’ works much better.

Don’t use jargon for the sake of it, either - or if you must, explain it (as per #2).

4. Don’t over-simplify.
This might sound like a contradiction of the previous point, but it isn’t. Sometimes technical documents (and I include other types of scientific, medical and scholarly documents here) contain complex concepts which will lose their significance if reduced to language that’s too simple.

If you have to explain complicated ideas, keep your explanation as straightforward as possible and explain terms that will be unfamiliar to your audience where necessary (as in #2); but don’t dumb it down to the point that you lose meaning or patronise your readers.

In summary: know the level of your readers and write to suit them! Even consider breaking a document into ‘basic’ and ‘advanced’ user guides if necessary. Don’t try to be too clever and keep things straightforward, but avoid making your writing too stupid, or so simple that your readers are annoyed.

All of which sounds complicated… but it isn’t. It just takes practice - and where possible, some guinea pigs to test your documents on!

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I’m pleased to announce a special guest post from Dianne Ascroft, the author of Hitler and Mars Bars. This novel describes a little-known piece of Irish history from the point of view of one of those most affected by it, and it’s definitely worth a read. I’ll be posting a review of the novel itself in the next week, but first, here’s Dianne to explain what brought her to write it.

Uncovering Operation Shamrock

My Curiosity Aroused

Have you seen the films Bridge Over the River Kwai or Saving Private Ryan? After watching a few war films you might think you’re familiar with the Second World War. The major events of the war are well known and documented. Countless books, documentaries and other films have been made about them. As a result, I’m sure many people think there’s nothing they don’t already know about the war years.

I would have thought the same until about six years ago when a German man told me about his unusual childhood. His story opened up a previously hidden slice of German and Irish history for me. It’s a piece of history that’s been overlooked in history books. When I first heard his story I had no idea where it would lead me. I didn’t realize that it would be the inspiration for my first novel.

This man, who peppers his conversation with Irish expressions delivered with a slight German inflection, had been brought to Ireland as a child by an Irish Red Cross project called Operation Shamrock. I’d never heard of it and few others I’ve mentioned it to have either. His experiences piqued my interest and I wanted to find out more about the project.

I began searching for anything written about it. Besides a brief description of the project on the Irish Red Cross website and the chapter, ‘Humanitarian aid after the war’, in Cathy Molohan’s book, Germany and Ireland 1945-1955, I’ve found few other references to it. In 1997 RTE television made a documentary about the endeavour and filmed a reunion of the now adult foster children and their foster families.

With the records trail petering out I still wanted to know more about the scheme. So I sought men and women who had been part of the project, their foster families, neighbours and classmates. I visited counties Cavan, Leitrim, Kildare and Wicklow, speaking to these people and recording their recollections of the era.

The Facts
The facts about Operation Shamrock emerged from my probing. Operation Shamrock was an Irish Red Cross project, in co-operation with the German Save The Children Society, which helped hundreds of children recover from the deprivation in post-war Germany. After the Second World War conditions in Europe, including Germany, were appalling and many people were near starvation. Ireland was one of the first countries to send donations of money and goods to the damaged country. People were particularly moved by the plight of the children and, as a result, the German Save The Children Society was formed in October 1945. Its stated aim was to bring German children to Ireland to save them from starvation.

In March 1946 the Irish Red Cross, on behalf of both organisations, applied to the Allied Control Council to bring one hundred German children to Ireland. The request was approved on 31st May. On 27th July, 1946 the first eighty-eight children arrived. By April 1947 over four hundred children, aged between three and fifteen, were in Ireland. Most of them came from the devastated Ruhr area which had been heavily bombed by the Allies during the war.

On arrival the children were taken to the Red Cross Centre at Glencree, Co Wicklow where they were cared for by nurses and Red Cross workers. Malnutrition and other health problems were treated and when their health improved sufficiently they were placed with foster families. Each child was fostered by a family of the same faith as himself. The children received good care and nourishing food. Most of these children formed strong bonds with their foster families and many were loath to leave them when the time came to return home.

At the end of the planned duration of the three year project, between April and September 1949, most of the children were returned to their families in Germany. They returned home healthy and happy though many missed their foster families. Approximately fifty children, for various reasons, remained in Ireland permanently.

A Book Is Born
For a history lover like me, it was exciting to uncover these little known facts and hear the stories of these people’s lives. It was like an explorer encountering an unknown civilization for the first time.

I had recently enrolled on a Writers Bureau correspondence course and I used the material I gathered to write an article for a course assignment. The article was later printed in Ireland’s Own magazine.

With my course assignment completed, I thought that was the end of it. I had satisfied my curiosity and had been able to put my new knowledge to use in my writing. But family members suggested that the information I’d uncovered could be molded into a good novel. Initially I wasn’t interested to pursue it but, the more I thought about it, the more the idea grew on me.

After I’d submitted my assignment I still had impressions and images of the people and places swirling around in my head. It was the individual’s stories that moved me and captured my imagination. BBC broadcaster Brian D’Arcy, when he reviewed my book, noticed my focus on the human element. He commented that the book was “beautifully written with a strong human story running through it”.

The more I thought about the possibilities, the more excited I got. Before I knew it I had begun writing the novel. So that’s where my curiosity about a German man’s childhood lead me and how Hitler and Mars Bars began.

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I’m fairly brain-dead today and also caught up in writing something (and it’s not even November yet). So I just thought I’d share this, from FAIL Blog:

see more pwn and owned pictures

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I wouldn’t normally post another poem so soon after the last one, but I wrote this today and it was too much fun not to put up immediately. (Click the image for a bigger version.)

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I thought for some variety, I’d take a list of the questions people have entered into search engines to find this blog with. And then answer them.

Why do we give satsumas at Christmas?
Because they are bright and orange and shiny. And once upon a time, were a rare treat which probably cost as much as most basic toys. (I have no idea why this question turned up this blog - no, wait, I figured it out, I mentioned Christmas satsumas in my poem Childhood Colours.)

How to pronounce feuilleton
Try looking it up in a dictionary and learning how to use pronunciation marks. Even try an online one - Merriam-Webster even has little sound files of how words should be pronounced. Or else go to this Word of the Day post.

Is The Book Thief written in third person?
Well, yes and no. It’s essentially Death recounting a story, so large chunks of it appear to be in the third person, but overall, it’s written in the first person. It’s a bit confusing, actually. (review by me & Ken)

What are technical words?
They’re ones that the ordinary person doesn’t understand because they’re, well, technical. If you want a more specific answer, they are words which have definitions relating to a specific industry or craft or enterprise, and which might not be in common use.

What day of the week was May 6th 2006?
Looking at a calendar tells me that it was a Saturday.

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