Cow TC Technical Communication Services

We've been discussing some of the more annoying mistakes in English grammar and syntax that we hear from some mother-tongue English speakers. For example, people who don't know the difference between counting and non-counting verbs, or who lack agreement between the verb and the noun, or who use the wrong word.

Why does this matter? When you are writing technical content, any error like that affects how users perceive the professionalism of your company and the quality of your product. It distracts them from the information and, in some cases, makes this distrust the accuracy of the information. All of these things lead to higher support costs or even loss of sales.

The moral is: not only do you need a native English speaker, but you need a trained professional technical communicator! Many native speakers make sloppy mistakes. Not everyone can automatically write quality documentation!

Leaving soon for COMTecnica, a tekom conference in Bologna. Looking forward to working with colleagues in Italy!

Why do some writings tasks take so much longer than others? Have you ever struggled to write a short topic, when you were able to write something comperable in an hour or so?

The answer lies in our understanding of the topic plus having a clear sense of how to organize it.

Outline before you start writing!

Wishing all my customers and colleagues a happy and joyous Purim!

I am impressed with the quality of the Hebrew and English captions at the opera. If the Tel Aviv Opera can get it right, why are sloppy translations so common -- and on more critical content?