Editor's Corner

Merriam-Webster recently added some words to the dictionary. In my next few posts, I’ll talk about some of these words.

boo-hoo: to weep loudly and with sobs

face-palm: to cover one’s face with the hand as an expression of embarrassment, dismay, or exasperation

side- eye: a sidelong glance or gaze especially when expressing scorn, suspicion, disapproval, or veiled curiosity

walk back: to retreat from or distance oneself from (a previously stated opinion or position)

weak sauce: something inferior, ineffective, or unimpressive

And the word shade now includes this definition:

throw shade (US slang): to express contempt or disrespect for someone publicly especially by subtle or indirect insults or criticisms

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.542.6711 | Extension: 766711

Symitar Documentation Services

If you’ve ever spent time here in Southern California, you know that we refer to the freeways as “the 5” or “the 15,” as if they were royalty. I wrote about that last year in this article The I-5. We also tend to spend a lot of time on the road and in traffic, often listening to the radio to find out which paths to avoid.

Today I’d like to talk about something that is also related to traffic and SoCal: the Sig-Alert.

When you’re driving here, you might hear something like, “A Sig-Alert is reported on the I-8 toward Yuma, due to a brush fire.” So what does it mean? Does it mean a signal? Does it stand for “Stay In Garage”? According to the California Department of Transportation, this is the official history and meaning of the Sig-Alert:

“Sig-Alerts” are unique to Southern California. They came about in the 1940s when the L.A.P.D. got in the habit of alerting a local radio reporter, Loyd Sigmon, of bad car wrecks on city streets. These notifications became known as “Sig-Alerts.” Later Mr. Sigmon developed an electronic device that authorities could use to alert the media of disasters. Caltrans latched on to the term “Sig-Alert” and it has come to be known as any traffic incident that will tie up two or more lanes of a freeway for two or more hours.

So there you have it! Now you know that you definitely don’t want to drive towards any place that is announcing a Sig-Alert.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

I know, I know…I probably interrupted you as you were signing a card to your sweetheart. Not to worry, I’m here to help. According to the thesaurus, here are almost fifty words that mean something similar to love and adoration. Be careful that you understand the subtleties of these synonyms so that your fifty shade of fondness and fifty shades of gray go to the right addressees!

From Thesaurus.com:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

Good morning! Last week, I shared words coined by novelist Charles Dickens. This week I want to share words coined by another English writer, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Tale of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan are two of his most famous works). Along with Walt Whitman, Coleridge founded the Romantic Movement in England in the 19th century.

I compiled this list from a Daily Writing Tips article.

· Actualize: Refers to realizing a goal

· Bisexual: Originally used to refer to androgyny

· Impact: Refers to the act of collision in a figurative sense of “the effect of one thing on another”
[dbb – Notice that this word is meant to be used to refer to a collision. If you want to discuss “producing an effect upon” or “acting on and causing a change,” the preferred term is
affect, as in “The credit union will not be affected by this change.”]

· Intensify: To make more intense or intensive; Coleridge coined this term because “render intense” did not fit the meter of a poem he was writing

· Psychosomatic: Refers to imagined maladies
[dbb – Psst! Don’t tell my sister that her symptoms could be psychosomatic. Something about that word gives her superhuman anger and extreme potty mouth…I was just trying to be helpful.]

· Relativity: Refers to the concept of one thing having a relation to another

· Selfless: Unselfish

· Soulmate: Refers to someone with whom one has a profound emotional connection (originally hyphenated)

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Extension: 765432

Symitar Technical Publications Writing and Editing Requests

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Your subject line is the first impression you make on potential readers. A good subject line can get people to open something that they might normally skip. As a business, we would like our clients to read what we send them. In the case of SLAs and other alerts, it is sometimes crucial that they read our correspondence.

The question is, what do we do to get people to open their emails? After reading five or six articles on the subject, I’ve come up with the following do’s and don’ts. I’ve left out things like using comedy, sex, political controversy, and panicky calls to action. I’m pretty sure those would work, but we have a good reputation to consider!

DO

· Keep it short and concise. Use six to ten words, under 50 characters. Make sure that your message can be read on smart phones, laptops, tablets—whatever the reader might be using.

· Write several subject lines and use the best one.

· Focus on verbs, action-oriented words.

· Create a sense of urgency using words like “today” or “this Thursday”

· Use numbers. (For example, “Seven Reasons to Start Surfboarding.”)

· Use compelling questions, such as “Interested in Being a PowerOn Programmer?”

· Use alliteration. (For example, “Find Five Fantastic Features in Future Releases”)

· Use words that provoke enthusiasm, such as:

o Join us!

o Provide your opinion!

o Let us know what you think!

DON’T

· Use the word “newsletter,” which prevents almost 20 percent of the population from even considering opening the email.

· Stay away from all capital letters, which come across as yelling.

For more assistance with your subject lines, or just for the entertainment value, check out the Title Generator.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Letter Keys

There are (fittingly) 26 letter keys on a standard keyboard. When you are telling someone to press a letter key, describe the key using an uppercase letter in bold type (for example, “Press Y”).

Number Keys

There are 10 number keys on a standard keyboard (and 10 more on the numeric keypad). It is not usually necessary to distinguish between the keyboard and the numeric keypad. When you are telling someone to press a number key, describe the key using a numeral in bold type (for example, “Press 1”).

Tip: You do not need to say the and key in phrases like “Press the Y key” or “Press the 1 key,” but you may do so if it helps with clarity (for example, if you’re switching back and forth between keyboard and mouse input).

Modifier Keys

The modifier keys (Alt, Ctrl, and Shift) modify other keys. For example, the Shift key switches the letter keys from lowercase to uppercase. Pressing a modifier key by itself usually has no effect.

Capitalize only the first letter of the modifier keys, and abbreviate as shown:

· Alt, not ALT or Alternate

· Ctrl, not CTRL or Control

· Shift, not SHIFT

Tip: This probably matches how these keys are labeled on your keyboard.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Modifier keys are commonly used in keyboard shortcuts. For example, holding down Ctrl while pressing C copies data to the Clipboard.

When you are telling someone to use a keyboard shortcut, combine the key names with a plus sign (for example, “Press Ctrl+C”). Do not put a space before or after the plus sign.

Do not combine keyboard and mouse actions as if they were keyboard shortcuts. For example, say, “Hold down Shift and click the cell.” Do not say, “Shift+click the cell.”

Ben Ritter | Technical Editor | Symitar®
8985 Balboa Avenue | San Diego, CA 92123
619-682-3391 | or ext. 763391 | www.Symitar.com

Symitar Documentation Services

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Today we have some interesting idioms and articles about monkeys!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Today I have an idiom for you from our contest: “no bones about it.” Essentially, it means something is stated clearly, without any room for doubt. I have an extended explanation of this phrase from our friends at The Phrase Finder. (I’ve added double quotation marks, but I have not changed the spelling in the article below.)

The actual source of this phrase is close to home and hearth. In 15th century England, if someone wanted to express their dissatisfaction with something, they didn’t “make bones about it,” they used the original form of the phrase and “found bones in it.” This is a reference to the unwelcome discovery of bones in soup—bones = bad, no bones = good. If you found “no bones” in your meal you were able to swallow it without any difficulty or objection.

The earliest citation of the phrase in print comes from the Paston Letters, which include a collection of texts from 1459 relating to a dispute between Paston and the family of the Norfolk soldier Sir John Fastolf (Fastolf was, incidentally, the source of the character Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV). In the Paston Letters, the context of which is that the litigants are finally accepting a verdict with no objection, Paston includes the line:

"And fond that tyme no bonys in the matere." [and found that time no bones in the matter]

“Making bones” is usually expressed in the negative. There are rare occurrences of people being described as “making bones” about this or that, and an early example comes from Richard Simpson’s The School of Shakspere, 1878:

"Elizabeth was thus making huge bones of sending some £7000 over for the general purposes of the government in Ireland."

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

Symitar Documentation Services

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Good morning. Are you ready for some information about word creation this morning? I’m not waiting for you to say no.

I think we’re all aware that while writing his plays and sonnets, William Shakespeare was responsible for creating many new English words. Well, he’s not the only writer to do so. Writers are notorious for creating words to fill a gap, to help flesh out their characters and dialog, or meet the needs of their rhyme or meter.

Here are a few words and phrases that were coined by another famous writer, novelist Charles Dickens. We don’t use all of them anymore, but more than half of them are still used frequently because they evoke such strong imagery. Not bad, Mr. Dickens!

The list is not complete and it is compiled from two sources: Dialywritingtips.com and Theweek.com.

· Abuzz: Characterizing excessive gossip or activity

· Butterfingers: Refers to clumsiness (originally hyphenated)

· Creeps (the): A feeling of fear or revulsion

· Devil-may-care: Meaning reckless, careless, or jovial and rakish in manner

· Doormat: Alludes to someone figuratively being walked all over

· Flummox: Alludes to being bewildered or perplexed

· Gonoph: Slang for a pickpocket or thief

· Gorm: A vulgar substitute for (God) damn

· Lummy: Slang for “knowing; cute” or “first-rate”

· Red tapeworm: A person who adheres excessively to official rules and formalities [dbb – This one is new to me, and I know it’s disgusting, but it is clever!]

· Sawbones: Slang for a surgeon or doctor

Charles Dickens

Donna Bradley Burcher | Senior Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Extension: 765432

Symitar Technical Publications Writing and Editing Requests

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Kara has written about avoiding noun strings before, but I’m mentioning it again because it is a common problem in technical writing. Stringing nouns together can make your writing unclear and confuse readers.

Also, the JHA Style Guide for Technical Communication and Training(Plain English Standards) has a standard for noun strings:

You can avoid noun strings by including prepositions and articles or by changing some of the nouns to adjectives or verbs.

Here are some more examples:

Original:

Use the input message destination transaction code as shown in the example.

Revision:

Use the transaction code for the destination of an input message as shown in the example.

Original:

Please schedule a meeting to discuss employee compensation level evaluation procedures.

Revision:

Please schedule a meeting to discuss procedures for evaluating the compensation level of employees.

Jackie Solano | Technical Editor | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.542.6711 | Extension: 766711

Symitar Documentation Services

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