[TYPO3-doc] Hello & Suggestion on a new Guide for non-native English speakers.

[Jacob Floyd]

Hello Everybody,

For those of you that I was not able to meet in Quebec, I'm Jacob Floyd.

The time I can spend on documentation comes in waves, but I'll be posting
some of my thoughts and questions about the TYPO3 docs, especially the
FLOW3 and Phoenix documentation.

On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 9:41 AM, François Suter <fsu-lists at cobweb.ch> wrote:

> I think this endeavor [the style guide for FLOW3 docs] is worthwhile. The
> main problem we will face IMO is that we have precious few English native
> speakers at hand. At least there are none among the "core" documentation
> team, nor are they professional technical writers.
>

Though I don't have a formal degree in Technical Writing, I'm currently
employed as a Technical Writer at InfoTrax Systems. I got that job thanks
in part to a Technical Writing class I took in school (all of the other
English classes looked quite useless and boring). Plus, I like to write,
and so, sometimes I'm a bit verbose in my emails. Just in case that bugs
someone here, I'll just apologize ahead of time. Sorry!

I also happen to natively speak American English because I grew up here in
the states (In Salt Lake, Utah to be more precise). ;)

Maybe we could have a guide--not specific to FLOW3--that lists some of the
common non-native mistakes I have seen in the TYPO3 documentation and
communication. That way, I can express things like the following in a
neutral place without sounding 'mean', 'rude', or 'overly critical of
someone's personal style'. There are people who speak incorrectly on
purpose, because that's their style. I don't want to step on toes or make
anyone feel uncomfortable when I make corrections or re-word things to
sound 'better', or more 'native' to me.

===Begin Example===
For example, the word 'until' is often used incorrectly. 'Until' indicates
the current state of things and specifies a time when that state will not
continue; It does not say anything about what that future state might be
unless you negate the part of the part of the sentence that comes before
the word 'until'.

Using 'until' in the sentence, "We should finish this until the end of the
month." is like saying "We should be finished now, but at the end of the
month we should not be finished any more." A couple of options that express
the desired meaning include: "We should finish this by the end of the
month" or "We won't be finished with this until the end of the month."
===End Example===

So, where could something like that go?

Happy to Help,
Jacob Floyd