Editor's Corner

Hello everyone!

After five days on jury duty, I have to say it is good to be back. During my time away, I collected a lot of things to share with you: questions about our language, emails from inquiring minds, passages from books I read, and grammar topics I want to touch on. Today and tomorrow, however, I will bring some of the legal vocabulary from my adventures in public service, directly to you. These terms are not in alphabetical order, but instead are in the order you might experience them while going through the process of serving on a jury for a trial.

The definitions are from the following glossaries and resources:

· http://www.sdcourt.ca.gov/portal/page?_pageid=55,1643485&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

· http://www.glenncourt.ca.gov/court_info/glossary.html

· http://www.nycourts.gov/lawlibraries/glossary.shtml

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.

· jury summons: The papers sent to potential jurors that require their attendance in court for possible service on a jury. [KC – This is the mail you receive that makes you break into a sweat, hoping that it isn’t the same week you are supposed to be in the Bahamas.]

· civil case/civil suit: A lawsuit is called a civil case when it is between two or more individuals or corporations involved in a dispute and usually seeking a judgment awarding monetary damages. A civil case is an action brought to enforce, redress, or protect private rights. Civil actions include:

o General Civil (seeking damages over $25,000)

o Limited Civil (seeking damages under $25,000)

o Family Law

o Probate

o Unlawful Detainer (landlord/tenant disputes)

o Small Claims (seeking damages under $5,000)

· criminal prosecution/criminal case: The act of pursuing a criminal trial, where the state charges someone with a crime. A criminal case is an action brought by the government against a person who has broken the law. Criminal cases are separated into three main categories; felony, misdemeanors, and infractions. [KC – After sitting in a room with several hundred people, thirty-five of us were called to a department in the criminal court area of the San Diego Courthouse. We were told very little except
that this was a criminal case.]

· recess: A short break in the proceedings, with court resuming on the same day. [KC – I went out for a little walk. Two meth addicts tried to get me to buy a stolen bicycle for $10 in front of a Wendy’s. I told them I might get in trouble
for accidentally flashing people while riding a stolen bike and wearing a dress.]

· voir dire: Translated from French, the legal phrase means "to speak the truth" or "to see them say." Voir dire is the preliminary examination of prospective jurors by a judge or lawyer to decide whether that person can serve on a particular jury. [KC – Also known as the time where you get to share basic personal information (and any experience with the police or crime) with a room full of strangers.]

· challenges: The law authorizes the judge and the lawyers to excuse individual jurors from service in a particular case for various reasons. If a lawyer wishes to have a juror excused, he or she must use a "challenge" for that juror. Challenges, or reasons to dismiss a juror, are of two kinds:

o for cause: The law sets forth a number of reasons why jurors may be excused "for cause." For example, a juror who is related to or employed by one of the parties in the case may be excused for cause. There is no limit to the number of for cause challenges that may be used. [KC – The potential juror who said he didn’t trust the police under any circumstances but also decided the defendant was guilty before the jury was chosen was excused “for cause.”]

o peremptory: Each side in a case has a certain number of challenges that can be used without giving a reason. These are called peremptory challenges. Each side may ask the judge to excuse particular jurors. If a juror is excused, this does not imply something bad and does not mean the juror is not competent in any way. It frequently happens that a prospective juror will be excused in a certain case and later accepted in another. The number of peremptory challenges have been established by the Legislature.

· impaneling: the process by which jurors are selected and sworn to their task.

Tomorrow: the trial.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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Per the JHA Style Guide for Technical Communication and Training,always title an image or introduce it with text that comes before the image.

Don’t assume that the reader understands your reasoning for placing images in your documentation.

Thank you,

Jackie Solano

Technical Writer, Episys Technical Publications

Symitar®

8985 Balboa Avenue

San Diego, California 92123

Direct Line: 619-542-6711

My dear Editor’s Corner readers,

How I miss you! I am still serving at the pleasure of Judge Judith Sheindlin (okay, it’s not really her) down at the courthouse. I had some big plans to get into a discussion of modal verbs, but there’s no time for that yet.

Instead, I will address a question I received twice in the last week. The question is: When you are talking about something that happens over and over again, is the word recurring or reoccurring?

According to Merriam-Webster:

recur

· to go back in thought or discourse

· to come up again for consideration

· to come again to mind

· to occur again after an interval: occurs time after time

As far as reoccur, it is not defined in Merriam-Webster as a single word, but as the prefix re plus the root word occur. We are left to assume it means "to occur again," but some resources say there is a distinction between the two.

From The Grammarist:

Recur vs. reoccur

· Something that recurs happens repeatedly, perhaps at regular intervals.

· Something that reoccurs happens again, but not necessarily repeatedly or at regular intervals.

For example, the sunrise recurs, and an unpredictable event that happens to occur more than once—such as an earthquake or a financial crisis—reoccurs.

More examples:

Recur

· Fresh off Golden Globe and SAG Award victories, the HBO drama will add this British actor in a recurring role on season two. [TV Fanatic]

· Seizures might recur as many as a hundred times a day. [Kilgore News Herald]

Reoccur

· In our view, Haiti’s traumatic crises will continue to reoccur unless resulting social, economic, and geographic imbalances are fundamentally changed. [Foreign
Policy]

In many circles, reoccurring is considered incorrect; some people think it is simply awkward. If you want to be safe, stick with recurring.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

Hello everyone!

I am taking a quick break from my civic duty as a juror to write a quick Editor’s Corner for you.

As I was watching the show Boardwalk Empire last weekend, one of the characters used the term “for the nonce.” The show is set in 1920s Atlantic City—but this sounded very Shakespearean to me. “For the nonce” means “for the time being.” It’s actually been around since the 1200s, pre-dating our friend William Shakespeare by 400 years.

Okay! I have other things up my sleeve—I’ve been marking down mondegreens, eggcorns, and malapropisms (more on these later) to share with you upon my return—but for now I have to get back to the jury of my peers!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

Anthropomorphism is attributing human characteristics or behavior to an inanimate object (things that are not human). Anthropomorphism is a form of a metaphor and can make your writing unclear and incorrect. We see anthropomorphism in documentation because a writer is trying to make complex information easier for the reader to understand. Instead of using anthropomorphism, work toward a clearer understanding of the content and another way to express it.

Here are some examples:

• Incorrect: This enhancement ensures compliance with Regulation Z.
• Correct: In this enhancement, Symitar modified the Episys database to remain compliant with Regulation Z.

An enhancement is incapable of ensuring anything because the term enhancement is the act of enhancing or state of being enhanced. The programming changes Symitar made are what ensure compliance.

• Incorrect: This field specifies how Episys advances the due date when a payment is made to a loan.
• Correct: Use this field to specify how Episys advances the loan due date when a member makes a payment.

The user’s input or the section in the field determines how Episys advances the due date.

• Incorrect: The system thinks you are inactive after 5 minutes and ends your session.
• Correct: If you are inactive for more than 5 minutes, the system ends your session.

The system can’t think. The user’s inactivity ends the session.

Sometimes it is acceptable to use anthropomorphism, as in the following examples (always use discretion):

• You end up with an awkward sentence trying to avoid using anthropomorphism
• You are writing about a hierarchical relationship, “a child object is said to inherit attributes from its parent or ancestors” (Microsoft Manual of Style)

Thank you,

Jackie Solano

Technical Writer, Episys Technical Publications

Symitar®

8985 Balboa Avenue

San Diego, California 92123

Direct Line: 619-542-6711

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Good afternoon! I had a question recently about common abbreviations like info (for information) and sync (for synchronization). The question was, “Why did you change info to information—everyone knows what info means, right?” Well, most people who are fluent in English do. However, I can’t answer that question with a straight-up yes, because today, so much of what we write will be read by people for whom English is not their first language. We should always keep that in mind.

The real answer to that question is that I changed info to information because in professional writing, to retain a professional tone, we always spell these words out (it’s the same reason we avoid using contractions like can’t, I’ll, and should’ve in our technical documentation and our correspondences to clients). But that’s not to say that we don’t or shouldn’t use these abbreviated words (and contractions) in other situations.

So, just for fun, let’s talk about abbreviating, which is also called word clipping. When we talk, and when we’re engaged in casual or creative writing, we clip words in a few different ways.

We back clip (remove the last part of a word). For example:

· Info: information

· Taxi: taximeter

· Lunch: luncheon

· Gas: gasoline

We fore-clip (remove the first part of a word). For example:

· Bot: robot

· Roach: cockroach

· Phone: telephone

We middle clip (remove the first and last part, and leave the middle part of a word). For example:

· Fridge: refrigerator

· Flu: influenza

We play with words all the time. I love to do it too, but not when writing technical documentation and not when corresponding with clients. We always have to keep our audience in mind.

The examples of clipped words above are from an article written by Maeve Maddox at Daily Writing Tips.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

Per the JHA Style Guide for Technical Communication and Training, when creating documentation in Word, PowerPoint, or a similar program, use the following font styles for user interface terms. (For content created in XML, style sheets may allow for more exact user interface definitions and a broader range of styles.)

Use italics for:

• Screens, windows, and panels
• SharePoint web parts
• Wizards
• Reports
• System-generated messages

Use bold for:

• Tabs
• Menus
• Options
• Buttons
• Fields
• Entries in a field

Thank you,

Jackie Solano

Technical Writer, Episys Technical Publications

Symitar®

8985 Balboa Avenue

San Diego, California 92123

Direct Line: 619-542-6711

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Good afternoon, folks!

Last week I was at Symitar’s Educational Conference and I was lucky enough to attend the “Business Writing” session taught by John Thomas, the Senior Manager of JHA’s Corporate Learning Solutions. I was also fortunate enough to get some new client subscribers to Editor’s Corner! Huzzah! Hurrah! We now have clients, employees, friends, and family subscribed to the group. We have readers from San Diego, California to Rockledge, Florida; from Okinawa, Japan to Athens, Greece. These are exciting times!

During John’s session, someone asked for the differences between the words assure, ensure, and insure. We provided her with a quick explanation, but since this question comes up frequently, I thought I’d go over the topic again.

The first thing I noticed about this trio is that they are commonly confused and with good reason. The definitions for each word point back to the other words as part of their etymologies or as possible synonyms. What we are looking at is the common and current differentiation between these words.Hopefully, these brief definitions will prevent you from getting tangled in their pasts.

· assure
to promise or say with confidence, encourage

Example: I assure you I have never lived in a convent, nor am I acquainted with Sister Mary Patrick.

· ensure
to make sure something will happen or won’t happen

Example: To ensure the freshness of our herbs and spices, we grow them on the rooftop and harvest them as orders come in.

· insure

to issue an insurance policy

From Merriam-Webster: guarantee “against a loss by a contingent event on certain stipulated conditions or at a given rate or premium.”

Example: Considering that I spend most of my day at a desk, I’m always a little nervous about the clause in our policy that insures us against accidental death and dismemberment.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

In honor of National Dog Day (August 26, 2014), I thought I would share some dog terms with you. These terms come from You’re My Dawg, Dog: A Lexicon of Dog Terms for People, by Donald Friedman.

Hangdog (adj) Dejected, downcast, furtive, or guilty-the expression found on a dog or human when he’s just been caught doing something he shouldn’t be or when he’s been told that he’s not going with you.

Hangdog (n) One who is furtive or sneaky.

Not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog

One of Mark Twain’s and now America’s great aphorisms, suggesting that the success is a matter of grit, spunk, determination, and a willingness to persist in the face of obstacles. Twain also observed, “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you,” adding that this was the principal difference between dog and man.

Putting on the dog

To behave pretentiously; to dress or behave in a showy manner.

Top dog (n)

The person, group, or entity that is in the dominant position, especially when emerging victorious after a conflict.

Thank you,

Jackie Solano

Technical Writer, Episys Technical Publications

Symitar®

8985 Balboa Avenue

San Diego, California 92123

Direct Line: 619-542-6711

Now here are two words that know how to cause trouble: function and functionality. One of our savvy readers asked me about these two words the other day and provided several examples from JHA documentation. She wanted to know which word was correct in the different situations. Ah, this is one of those questions I’ve been dreading. Why? Because it is another case of taking some perfectly decent nouns (function, role, purpose, process, etc.), replacing those words with a word that is 1) longer, 2) almost exactly the same word, 3) more vague—and then overusing the word until editors everywhere go bald from trichotillomania.

Here are the definitions of function and functionality that apply to our circumstances (from Merriam-Webster):

· function (noun)

The action for which a person or thing is specially fitted, used, or responsible or for which a thing exists: the activity appropriate to the nature or position of a person or thing: role, duty, work. [KC – Other synonyms include: purpose, job, task, process.]

· functionality (noun)

The quality, state, or relation of being functional: utility, interrelation. [KC – Other synonyms include: usefulness, purpose, use, performance, range of capabilities.]

Yes, they are both real words. Yes, you can use both of them. But please, before you opt for sounding fancy, look at the definitions and synonyms for both words. Ask yourself:

· Which word fits my situation the best?

· Which word provides the most clarity?

· Is there a synonym that fits even better?

And please, for the love of all that is sacred and holy, don’t use it more than once per sentence or paragraph. Your editors thank you.

Thanks to Jolie L. for the grammar humor!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory