Editor's Corner

Per the JHA Style Guide for Technical Communication and Training, you should avoid using semicolons in your writing. Sentences should be kept simple so that semicolons are not required. Lengthy sentences make writing difficult to read and understand, especially in technical documentation. You can trim sentence length by breaking long sentences into two or more separate sentences. The new editing tool (Acrolinx) that Jack Henry is working on implementing will flag sentences that contain more than 30 words.

If you must use a semicolon, here are the rules from a previous Editor’s Corner written by Donna Bradley Burcher:

Rule 1: Use a semicolon between two independent clauses (which is a highfalutin way of saying two complete sentences) that are not joined by a conjunction (such as, and, but, because, etc.). Used this way, the semicolon signals a closer connection between the clauses than a period would.

Examples:

· Don’t argue with me; I’m a black belt.

· He says he’s allergic to dogs; she says he just doesn’t want her to adopt the Saint Bernard she found at the shelter.

· Other networks do not use this parameter; it remains set to No.

Note: Similarly, you can use a semicolon with a transitional adverb (like however, therefore, etc.) between your two independent clauses, for example:

· He really liked road trips; however, he suffered from motion sickness so he couldn’t be the map reader.

Rule 2: Use a semicolon to separate the main entries in a list that also includes subentries. (In other words, use semicolons to separate items in a series when some or all of the items in that series already contain commas. The examples below should make this rule clear.)

Examples:

· There are Symitar credit unions in San Diego, CA; Seattle, WA; and Chicago, IL.

· Set the HB Enable Code field to indicate the member’s level of access (inquiries only; inquiries and transfers; or inquiries, transfers, and withdrawals).

Thank you,

Jackie Solano

Technical Writer, Episys Technical Publications

Symitar®

8985 Balboa Avenue

San Diego, California 92123

Direct Line: 619-542-6711

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Have you ever wondered about the correct way to use the words might and may? Well, if you have, you’re not alone. Both words indicate that something is possible, and the difference between the words is subtle, so many people use them interchangeably. If you want to be one of the few people to use them correctly, here’s what you need to know:

First, you should use may instead of might if you are talking about something that is more likely. So, for instance, I may go home early today. And I might win the lottery. (I don’t even play the lottery, so it is much more likely that I’ll go home early today—and since I came in late, it only seems fitting. It’s all about balance.)

Second, might is the past tense of may, so you should always use might when you’re talking about something that happened in the past. For example, if your boss asks you if your co-worker came in late this morning, you could answer, “She might not have.” And I would say, “Thank you.”

To read more about the correct use of may and might, read this article from Grammar Girl.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Technical Editor | Symitar®

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

Just the other day, someone asked me about when to use wait vs. await, or if they could use them interchangeably. While they both have a general meaning of staying in place, each has a different flavor and requires a different grammatical structure. Let’s have a look!

The verb await requires that you have an object in your sentence. For example:

· I await your response to my invitation.

· Joe shook nervously as he awaited Becky’s answer to his proposal.

And while await means “staying” or “being ready” for something, it is also considered more formal. It even has a bit of a shady background according to Merriam-Webster, where its obsolete use is “to watch for (someone) especially with hostile intent: lie in wait for.”

The verb wait is more flexible. You can use it by itself, with other verbs, and to mean everything from “staying” to “attending to” to “delay.” For example:

· We waited three hours for Chris to show up.

· Jeeves waited on the Countess, predicting his mistress’s every need before she herself knew she wanted something.

· Wait thirty minutes after eating before you return to the swimming pool.

Another interesting tidbit (well, interesting to me) is that the Spanish verb esperar means both “to wait” and “to hope.”

Now…no more waiting! It’s Friday. Have a great weekend.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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Long ago and far away, someone asked me about this tiny character on our keyboards. It looks like a backwards apostrophe or single quote mark. On my keyboard, it is to the left of the 1, underneath the tilde (~) and it looks like this:

`

This, my friends, is called the grave accent. It isn’t used in everyday English, though you might be familiar with it if you read a lot of poetry or song lyrics. From Wikipedia:

“…sometimes used in poetry and song lyrics to indicate that a vowel usually silent is to be pronounced, in order to fit the rhythm or meter. Most often, it is applied to a word ending with -ed. For instance, the word looked is usually pronounced /ˈlʊkt/ as a single syllable, with the e silent; when written as lookèd, the e is pronounced: /ˈlʊk.ɨd/ look-ed). It can also be used in this capacity to distinguish certain pairs of identically spelled words like the past tense of learn, learned /ˈlɜrnd/, from the adjective learnèd /ˈlɜrn.ɨd/ (for example, "a very learnèd man").”

The accent is also used in some programming and is used regularly in other languages such as Dutch, French, Catalan, Italian, Mohawk, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, etc. Click the Wikipedia link above for more information on this mysterious accent hiding in plain sight on our keyboards.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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Parallelism refers to using similar grammatical constructions to balance your bullet points and the phrases in your sentences. Using parallel structure in your writing helps increase clarity and readability.

Parallelism in Bulleted Lists:

When creating a bulleted or numbered list, you should structure all of the bullet points the same way. If one bullet point in the list starts with a verb (an action word) or an article (a, an, the), you should start them all similarly. Bulleted lists should be composed of all complete sentences (with punctuation), or they should all be sentence fragments (without punctuation).

We have an additional new rule from JHA Style Guide for Technical Communication and Training, which states that each bullet that completes the introductory sentence should end with a period (this is not true for slide shows). For example:

Before you submit a document for editing, you should:

· Read it carefully and look for mistakes.

· Ask someone to peer review your document.

· Run spell check.

Parallelism in a Sentence:

When writing a sentence that includes a series or related phrases, you should make sure to structure the phrases similarly.

· Non-parallelism

To use NTMC home banking, a member must connect to the Internet, go to your credit union’s home page, and should select a link to NTMC home banking from your website.

Notice that in the example above, the writer switches from third person (a member) to second person (you). The writer has also written the three tasks so that they are not parallel (a member must connect to…, go to your…, and should select…)

· Parallelism

To use NTMC home banking, a member must connect to the Internet, go to the credit union’s home page, and select a link to NTMC home banking from your website.

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.
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is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

I’m feeling very Grinchy today: small-hearted, green, and a bit furry. Here is something I would like to call your attention to. Whether you are talking about installing sprinklers, software, or a rotating bed, the infinitive of the verb is to install.

For example:

· He is installing solar-powered lights on the roof.

· I would install a frozen yogurt machine in my dream house.

The noun associated with this verb is a word all its own: installation.

For example:

· You can see the latest installation of Christo’s art along the Arkansas River.

· We provide an installation guide with each product, which will help you install the necessary software.

Sad editors: The install is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Happy editors: The installation is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

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
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Here are the guidelines for trademark usage from the Jack Henry & Associates’ Corporate List of Products document.

· Product and service names (Marks) must be used exactly as listed in the Jack Henry & Associates’ Corporate List of Products and Services document, including the appropriate symbol (®, TM, or SM), upon first reference of the Mark on every JHA website page and in every bound JHA document.

· If the document can be disassembled, such as loose-leaf pages in a binder, the symbol MUST be used with the first reference of the Mark on each page.

· You can omit the symbols from the Mark in subsequent uses on the same page, document, or website page, as applicable, but the Mark must otherwise appear exactly as listed in the Jack Henry & Associates’ Corporate List of Products and Services document.

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.
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is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

Good morning!

The discussion of the overuse and misuse of the word “literally” has come up before here at Editor’s Corner. It is also the topic of newspaper articles, blogs, and even TV discussions. Here is yet another comment on the topic—from the cutting wit of Charles Harrington Elster, in his book What in the Word?

Q. Consider the word literally in a sentence like this: “His jokes literally kill me.” To avoid a rather grim interpretation, shouldn’t it be “his jokes figuratively kill me”?

A. Although I might snicker silently to hear someone say “His jokes literally kill me”—or if I was feeling especially petulant, I might say “Congratulations on your resurrection”—I would laugh out loud if I ever heard someone say “His jokes figuratively kill me.” It would be so ridiculously self-conscious and pedantic. The solution, of course, it to eliminate literally. Most of the time the word is superfluous, anyway, and it’s easily replaced with another adverb if such hyperbolic emphasis can’t be resisted.

And on the same topic, from XKCD:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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A common battle exists among different communicators at our company and others. It is the battle of the creative staff, business professionals, and product experts—against us technical writers and editors. Maybe battle is the wrong word. We just have different audiences and different goals in our communication, and one of the times that becomes difficult is when jargon is involved.

The other day I attended a webinar about introverts and extroverts. Several times, the presenter referred to an individual’s personality as their “personal branding.” After barfing a little, I looked at my coworker and asked, “Did she really just say ‘personal branding’?” Why? Why convolute the message with some new, undefined term? Were we to consider her more of an expert in the field of business psychology? There’s already a word in psychology that perfectly describes the way you present yourself to others: persona.

While jargon generally comes about within a certain field so experts can communicate amongst themselves, when you start throwing it out at a broad audience, it tends to push away the people you desire to communicate with. As the provider of the examples below says, jargon should be used “cautiously, infrequently, and at the right times.” The problem is that it is rarely given deep consideration and that sets technical writers on edge. It is our job to communicate difficult ideas clearly and concisely; not to use fluff or abstract terms to increase the vagaries of something. Each type of communication has its place, I know. But today I am talking about technical documentation, so I won’t be responding to hate letters or rants about the sterility of technical documentation and its lack of flowery imagery.

Here are some excerpts from a Grammarbook.com newsletter on jargon.

Jargon Is No Bargain

Almost a century ago, in 1916, the British author, editor, and literary critic Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944) published On the Art of Writing.The book’s fifth chapter is titled “Interlude: On Jargon.” Quiller-Couch abhorred jargon, a catchall term for pompous, bloated, clumsy, hackneyed, or impenetrable writing.

Quiller-Couch, who wrote under the pen name “Q,” extols “the active verb and the concrete noun.” He deplores “dissolving vivid particulars into smooth generalities.” If writers say what they mean in a strong, clear, direct voice, they can avoid the jargon trap. “Jargon is by no means accurate, its method being to walk circumspectly around its target; and its faith, that having done so it has either hit the bull’s-eye or at least achieved something equivalent, and safer.” …

Q disdains words and phrases such as case, instance, nature, condition, persuasion, degree, as regards, with regard to, in respect of, in connection with. “They are all dodges of Jargon, circumlocutions for evading this or that simple statement: and I say that it is not enough to avoid them nine times out of ten, or nine-and-ninety times out of a hundred. You should never use them.”

Jargon diminishes us not just as writers but as human beings: “If your language be Jargon, your intellect, if not your whole character, will almost certainly correspond. Where your mind should go straight, it will dodge: the difficulties it should approach with a fair front and grip with a firm hand it will be seeking to evade or circumvent.” …

“That is Jargon,” says Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, “and to write Jargon is to be perpetually shuffling around in the fog and cotton-wool of abstract terms.”

And a small selection of business jargon from: http://www.businesstune-ups.com/Business-Jargon.html. This is your invitation to proceed with caution.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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You know what I love about you guys? Yes, you. I love that you are learning and questioning things that you see online, in newspapers, and everywhere else after reading the Editor’s Corner. Of course, the world needs to watch out! There are more than a thousand of you eagle-eyed grammarians and you are making it tougher on the folks out there who aren’t as careful as you.

One of the biggest examples I’ve seen is the number of errant uses of the words complementary and complimentary—and your responses. Since several notices have gone out at JHA with these mix-ups, I’ve been asked by many of you to cover this item again, in hopes to get the word out. Here you go!

Definitions from Merriam-Webster, examples from me.

· complement

1: something that fills up or completes

2: something that fills out and makes perfect: a completing or consummating part, integral, or component

Examples:

o This wine coupled with that cheese is the perfect complement to the meal we just ate.

o JHA has several fantastic core products that can be combined with hundreds of smaller, complementary products to create an unbeatable customized system.

Hint: Complementary with an “e” is about one thing completing another thing to make a perfect whole.

· compliment

1: a formal expression (as by speech, gesture, or ceremony) of esteem, respect, affection, or admiration

2: compliments plural: best wishes: regards <to send her compliments to a friend><a free sample is enclosed with the compliments of the manufacturer>

3: now dialectal: a complimentary gift: gratuity <to make a compliment of a book>

Examples:

o She was always ready with a compliment rather than a complaint: “What a great imagination!” “What a fantastic use of color!” “What an innovative use for popsicle sticks!”

o “Delicious dinner, Kitty,” said Bob. “My compliments to the chef.”

o You get a complimentary stuffed squirrel with every $49.99 you spend on home décor.

Hint: “I like you,” is a compliment. Remember the important letter here is “i”.

For a previous article on complementary and complimentary: https://episystechpubs.com/2013/02/06/editors-corner-c-is-for-calm/

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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